Falling Skies: The Silence
by Brace Yourself Red
Summary: When Laura joins the Second Mass she is reunited by family and gains a new one. Becoming a major part of the Second Mass and possibly falling in love is nothing compared to the secret she and her family hold. This is her story. Hal/OC, takes place is season 1 and a little into the three months before season 2. PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

**This chapter is just here to give some background. The next chapter is when she meets the Second Mass and the third chapter is where things speed up.**

I wake up in another stranger's house, just like I have for the last few months. I'm constantly moving, sleeping in a new house every night. I only leave a house at dawn or twilight, for that's the safest; it's dark enough to see the lights on a machine alien, but light enough to see the green spiders. I carry only a backpack with clothes, food and water. I also have a hunting knife, a pistol and an automatic gun, with a few extra clips for each.

I get up, already dressed, sling the backpack over my shoulders, put my hair up and grab the pistol on the nightstand. I put on my holster for it and put it back in it. I pick up my automatic weapon and go downstairs. I already got all the food I could from this place and am ready to move on. Luckily the fridge was still cold, so I had a feast last night. I look out the window at the backdoor and, seeing nothing, I silently go outside. My weapon ready I quickly start to move down the street. I had gotten twelve blocks when I hear the groan of a machine. It's right around the corner, which is not twenty five meters from where I'm standing. The nearest house is too far, so I get into the nearest car. I know this type of truck, and so, thinking quickly, I crawl into the trunk. My dad had this truck and when he left things in it that someone might want to steal, he always put them in the trunk because it had something in it that pulled out, covering the entire trunk. This is what I did now. I pulled it over my head and controlled my breathing. I had been this situation before once and I know that it's the suspense and anticipation that always gets people. I can see that the machine is shining its light onto the car since there is a crack of light that shows through at the other side of the trunk. Then the light disappears and its steps grow fainter. I stay there for a moment before crawling to the other side of the trunk and peering out the window. I don't see anything there, so I pull the cover back and open the trunk. I don't bother to close it, but keep making my way down the street, away from the machine.

That's when the car beside me explodes.


	2. Chapter 2

I duck as debris rains down, but I keep running. I can run fast enough to find somewhere to hide. I see a man hole and quickly remove its lid. I practically jump down onto the ladder and put the lid back over; just in time too. The machine's footsteps are very loud now and they seem to be right over my head. There's a hole in the lid, so I look through it. The machine is right over top of me. I try not the gulp, not wanting to make even the slightest sound. That's when I hear gunshots from what I think are human weapons. Then I hear shouting and the machine groan and start to walk in the direction I had been going. I quietly and slowly uncover the man hole and climb out. I hide behind an overturned car and see five men and one woman fighting three spiders and one machine. A boy crouching behind a car sees me and waves me over. I've been deceived before and almost ended up being captured by some men saying that they could protect me, but they really just wanted me for their "pleasure". But seeing as how they have a woman with them, I'm beginning to trust them more easily. I check the coast is clear before running over to him. I look at him; he has dark brown hair and is rather cute, but I barely notice as something explodes. It was a grenade, I think. I see the machine chasing me is dead, but one of the spiders is still fighting. I have a clear shot of it and I take it. I only shoot one bullet, but it hits it squarely in its forehead and it's dead.

"Nice shot," says the boy besides me and he starts to walk around the car.

Before I can say thanks I hear the groan of another machine behind us and I turn my head to try to see it. But before I do, I see the lasers on the boy's back and I react. I run and push him down, but not before I'm shot instead. I am on the ground and the others draw its fire as the boy pulls me behind something else. The last thing I'm aware of is someone shouting to someone named Hal that they need to get out of here and of the boy picking me up in a fireman's carry and running.


	3. Chapter 3

I remember being placed on my back on what feels like a bed, but I really don't pay much attention to that since my side is burning and I feel like screaming in agony, but nothing comes out. I hear a woman's voice and the prick of a needle. Then it all fades.

The pain starts to get better am I'm aware of the things around me. I couldn't move though except to breath, and that even hurt. But then three voices stated talking somewhere above me.

"How is she?" a man with a slightly gruff voice asks.

A woman answers. "Stable, but she'll be here for a day or two; she was more grazed by the mech's bullets than actually hit. What worries me is that she might have a concussion from where her head hit the ground. Also I think her ribs are bruised, that probably happened when she hit the ground as well. If you want to talk with her, then you'll have to wait because with the sedative I gave her, she probably won't wake up for a few more hours." There's a moment of silence.

"Who is she?" the first man asks.

"Not a clue," a second man answers. There's shuffling and a faint squeak, like shoes on a polished floor.

"She was running from a mech and hiding, that's when we opened fire on some skitters. The mech heard and came to us. She must've recognized our gunfire and came to find us. When I saw her, I waved her over and she killed the last skitter," a third man says, but his voice sounds younger than the other two.

"So how'd she get shot up if all of the enemy was dead?" the first man asks.

"There was another mech that we hadn't seen and I guess that it had its sights on me because she pushed me to the ground and took the bullets herself," the third man answers.

There's silence before the first man says, "Alright then, you two get some rest, you're both on night patrol."

"Yeah," the second man says.

There's more shuffling, of one man walking, but the other two stay and continue to talk.

"I think I'm going to stay here, just until she wakes up," the younger one says.

"You don't have to; doc said she should be fine. Plus you'll need some rest," the voice of the second man says.

"She saved my life and almost killed herself in the process. She should at least have a familiar face here when she wakes up," the younger man says.

"Alright," the second man says and he walks away. The last thing I hear before the drugs pull me back under is the sound of a chair scraping on the ground, settling beside me.

I hate to sleep; I always have nightmares. They're not bad, but ever since my mother was killed two days ago by the spiders, half the time I wake up screaming. This adds to my fear of the spiders and machines getting me in my sleep because they heard my screams.

This night is one of those nights.

I watch as they take my little sister away, the machine shooting her and the spider catching her. Then my father starts to scream her name and I try to stop him, but it's too late. He's already been shot, his blood getting sprayed onto my face. I hold still, and the spiders don't come any closer; I guess they figure that no one else was here.

I remember when my mom tells me that my younger brother is missing. That they were attacked while I was out searching for food and that she can't find him.

I'm out searching for food for me, my mother and my other younger brother. We split up to cover more ground; my brother going with my mother and me alone. I watch as three spiders and one machine goes by, going in the direction my mother and brother went. I wait until they turn the corner and follow. I watch as my mother is surrounded by the spiders, she manages to kill one before the other two maul her. I watch as the spiders leave and I crawl to her and take her hand; she's barely alive. She tells me that they took my brother and to run and that she loves me, but the pain is too much and she begs for it to end. I cry, taking out my knife and I tell her I love her too before I slit her throat.

"Hold her down!" a woman shouts and weak arms hold mine down and this just makes me struggle more.

"What's going on?!" someone else yells.

"Help hold her down!" the woman shouts and the arms are replaced by much stronger ones.

"You have to calm down, you're safe here," a boy's voice says soothingly. I know that voice and I open my eyes. It's him, the boy that I saved. I try to stop struggling and he puts a hand on my face and tells me to take deep breaths, taking them himself to try and help me. I try to match his breathing and after a few moments, it's relatively back to normal.

"Good," he breathes out and smiles. Someone comes up behind him and it must be the doctor because she had a stethoscope around her neck.

"My name's Doctor Glass, but most people just call me Anne. What's your name?" she asks.

"Laura," I say simply. The boy takes a step back so the doc can get closer to me. I touch the bandage on my forehead; I guess I hit my head somehow.

"Well Laura, do you have any pain?" she asks.

I shake my head no.

"Good," she says. She takes out her light and flashes it in my eyes, then checks my pulse.

"It's a little high, but it's probably just from the adrenaline," she states.

That's when a man races in, followed by two soldiers. She walks over to them and they talk, but I can't hear what they say.

"I'm Hal," the boy says.

"Where am I?" I ask him.

"You're with the Second Massachusetts," he answers.

"What's that?" I ask.

"A group of survivors, one of many Massachusetts regiments," he tells me. I nod, taking in this information. Could there really be survivors that have organized?

The man that was talking to the doc comes forward to the end of my bed.

"I'm Captain Weaver, leader of the Second Massachusetts," he introduces himself.

"Laura," I say.

"Well, Ms. Laura, my fighters told me that you killed a skitter, where'd you learn to shoot?" Weaver asks.

"Skitter?" I ask confused.

"The green, six legged aliens," Hal says.

"Oh. My father was in the marine core, he taught us how to shoot," I answer.

"Us?" Weaver asks.

"My mom and my three siblings," I say.

He nods his head and I'm thankful he doesn't ask about my family. "Well, we could always use more fighters, I hope you'll join." I shake my head, really considering it; it'll be nice to get some payback, plus I hate chores, which is what I guess I'd be doing if I wasn't a fighter. Weaver leaves and so does his fighters. The doc goes to another patient and Hal is left standing there awkwardly.

"What is this place?"

"It's just a house we're using before we move on," Hal answers and there's a moment of silence.

"I'm sorry," he says finally.

"You're sorry, why?" I ask confused again.

"You pushed me out of the way and you got shot for it," he says. I smile a little.

"It's not your fault. It's mine, I'm the one who pushed you remember," I joke and he laughs a little. I start to join him, but it hurts too much. He sees this and immediately gets concerned.

"Do I need to get Anne?" he asks.

"No, I'm fine. Ok so laughing bad," I say and smile.

The doc comes back over and says to Hal, "Ok, she needs to get some rest."

Hal starts to walk away when I grab his arm.

"But really, don't blame yourself," I whisper. I let go and he walks out.

The first thing I do when I wake up is shield my eyes from the light from the lamp. I sit up and find that it's only slightly painful. Hal isn't here, not that I expected he would be, but Dr. Glass is. She realizes that I'm awake and she comes over to my side.

"How long have I been sleeping?" I ask.

"About seven hours," she says, checking her watch.

"Wow, I haven't even slept that long since they came," I tell her.

"What am I wearing?" I ask, looking at my clothes.

"We had to change your clothes. They were covered in blood and part of your top was pretty much shredded," she says.

She takes a look at my wound and says she has to redress it and then I can go.

"I thought that it was more serious than that," I say.

"Well, you had a vest on, so it wasn't that bad, plus it more grazed your side," she says.

"Ok, I'm done," she states and I get down off the bed. She picks up a bag from underneath the bed and hands it to me.

"What's this?" I ask.

"Just some things you might need; toothbrush, hairbrush, some extra clothes…" she trails off.

"Thanks, so where will I be staying?" I ask.

"That you'll have to ask Weaver about. Have you decided if you're going to be a fighter yet? I heard you did really well out there," she says.

"Thanks and I did think about it. I want to be a fighter, I don't know what else I'd do if I couldn't kill spiders- sorry I mean skitters," I say, remembering what they call them.

"It's all right; some people still call them different things just because that's what they're used to," she says.

"So where can I find Weaver?" I ask.

"He's probably one house over," she says, pointing to the left, "but if he's not there, than he's just around."

"Thanks," I say and then I walk out.


	4. Chapter 4

I walk to the house Anne pointed to and walk inside. There are some men here that look military and Weaver standing over a table in what looks like a dining room. He sees me and I walk over to him.

"Come to join my fighters, huh?" he asks.

"Yep," I answer.

He nods. "You'll be bunking two houses over, upstairs, second room on the left. You'll be alone unless I assign someone else there with you. Oh and the stuff you had with you when we found you is over there."

He points to the kitchen counter.

"Thanks," I say, walking over and put my jacket on, strap my knife to my ankle, put the holster on and the pistol in it, sling the Colt Model 733 over my right shoulder and pick up the backpack. I'm about to walk outside when Weaver stops me.

"Laura, I have an offer. I know you're still healing, so you can say no, but we need another fighter for a mission at an armory tonight. You up for the task?"

I smile, "Of course."

"Good, at dark you'll met me outside geared up," he orders.

"Yes sir," I say and turning to leave. What I see stops me in my tracks.

"Jimmy?" I say shocked.

"Laura!" he exclaims.

I rush to him, dropping the backpack and hug him.

"Laura, put me down," he says laughing. I hadn't even realized that I had picked him up; I guess it's just old habits.

I realize that everyone's looking at us.

"How do you know each other?" Weaver asks.

"He's my brother," I say, putting my arm around his shoulders.

"Oh, well I've changed my mind; you'll be bunking with Jimmy. Jimmy can you show your sister where that is," he says.

"Yes sir," Jimmy answers and I pick up the backpack. He takes my hand and leads me outside.

Jimmy and I talk all day, just catching up. He told me how he got separated from mom and our younger brother, Michael. Then how he survived until he met the Second Massachusetts and how he became a fighter.

"Did you tell Weaver; about your ability?" Jimmy asks.

"No, not yet," I say.

"You can trust these people, especially Weaver and Tom," he tells me.

"Who's Tom?" I ask.

"Tom Mason, he's in charge of the group of fighters I'm usually with," he says.

"And who else is in this group?"

"You have Hal, Tom's son, his girlfriend Karen, Dai, he's Chinese or something and Anthony, who's black," Jimmy informs me.

"You really should tell them though, it could really help the resistance," Jimmy says, not letting up.

"Just because I won't tell them about my power doesn't mean I won't use it," I say.

"Yes because something suddenly freezing like time stopped for no reason won't scare them senseless," he says and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, but you know I have trust issues. You can tell me as many times as you want that I can trust them, but I have to find that out for myself," I say and change the subject.

At night, I gear up; my magazines have already been refilled, so I'm ready. Then I see Jimmy gearing up too and ask where he's going. He says he's going on a mission with Tom Mason to an armory to see if there are any weapons there. That sounds like the mission Weaver told me about earlier, but I keep that to myself. I feel confident that Jimmy can take care of himself, so I didn't protest that much when he told me that he was a fighter. I mean of course I did protest, I'm his big sister, but he's stubborn just like me.

We walk outside and Weaver waves me over. I tell Jimmy to go on he goes to a table with guns and ammo and he picks up a gun and starts to load it. He then walks over to a Chinese guy at the back of a pickup truck.

I walk over to Weaver. He's with two other guys.

"Laura, I want you to met Tom Mason, he'll be in charge of this operation. This is Click," Weaver says and I shake both of their hands.

"Listen, I want you two," Weaver points to me and Click, "to go in place of Jimmy."

"Captain?" I ask.

Weaver sighs, "Jimmy's a good soldier, but he messed up on his last mission, so we're going to have him sit this one out; give him a break."

I nod, Jimmy had told me about that last mission.

"Jimmy, come here a second," Tom says and Jimmy walks over.

"You're gonna sit this one out, alright," Tom says.

"Because I screwed up?" he asks. I look down, knowing that if he saw my face, he'd know that that was why.

"Tom needs someone bigger in case they find weapons," Weaver says, I guess he doesn't want to hurt Jimmy's feelings.

"That'll be me," Click says.

"And we want to give Laura a chance in the field, see how she does," Weaver says.

"Ok?" Tom asks, "Good; get some rest."

Tom looks at Weaver for permission to move out.

"Alright," Weaver says and Tom walks towards the rest of the group. Click and I follow him. I stop to give Jimmy a quick hug though and I see the disappointment on his face.

"Really quick before we move out though, this is Laura, she'll be coming with us and so will Click," Tom says.

"Oh great a newbie," the girl says who I'm assuming is Karen from what Jimmy told me earlier. Hal elbows her and I think that I'm not going to like Karen much.

"And this is-," Tom starts to say, but I cut him off.

"No need," I say. "This is Hal, Karen, Dai, Anthony and you're Tom," I say, pointing to them as I say their name. Tom looks surprised and Hal impressed, but Karen rolls her eyes. I raise my eyebrow, looking straight at her.

"Alright then, everyone ready?" Tom asks and everyone nods their heads and we start walking. I look back at Jimmy one last time and follow.


	5. Chapter 5

We reach the armory and we all go through the front door. I don't know much about protocols and hand signals, which is odd considering that my dad was in the military, so I just follow their lead. Tom tells me to stand here and to come down to tell us if any skitters or mechs come. I stand here when I hear gunshots and I almost run down to the rest of the team, but I don't because I know that it would make too much noise. Instead I quickly walk- practically tiptoeing- into the building, make a left and reach the stairs. I go down half the stairs and take cover behind the wall dividing the stairs from the level below. I'm still on the stairs, but I can see Tom and whoever he's talking to.

"What do you want?" Tom asks.

"Well, you… and the guns," someone says to the right. I can't see who it is though because he's crouched down behind a shelf. Tom sees me and shakes his head; I guess I looked like I was about to step out from my hiding place. Then there are footsteps coming from upstairs.

"Listen, hear that? You start firing, robot comes in, where as you don't do what we say, we start picking you off without so much as a whisper. So you have a choice; put down your guns and come with us," the man says.

I can see Tom hitting his head on the wall in frustration.

"Why don't you shine a light on yourself? So I can see who I'm talking to," Tom says, raising his weapon.

"Why don't I shine a light on these two instead," the man says and two figures are pushed forward with guns pointed at them. The man shines the light on them and I recognize them as Hal and Karen.

"Put down your guns, now," the man says as he shines the light on his face. "Or these two get skewered."

Tom lowers his gun and signals everyone else to do the same. Tom stands with his hands raised and the man shouts out orders to his men. Tom gives me a look that says "stay put" and so I do. I'm not sure whether they have seen me, so I guess I'm about to find out. The man's men gather up my team and hurry them forward as the mech upstairs makes odd noises. That's when the mech starts firing through the ceiling and comes crashing through. I inch back so I'll be sure it can't see me. Tom wanted me to go back to the Second to get help, I'm guessing; I might be their only hope. But then it hits me, Weaver probably won't send reinforcements for a rescue if they don't know where to go. He's not going to risk any fighters with two hundred civilians to protect.

Remember that ability me and Jimmy talked about earlier, well let me tell you a little about it. I can freeze time within a specific area with my mind. It's actually called Molecular Immobilization, but we (as in my family) call it freezing. I direct it through my hands though, so if they're tied, I pretty much can't use my ability until I free them. But I need to get past that mech to follow my team. I know bullets can't harm it, so I use these abilities now. I quickly go down a few steps so I can see the mech and I freeze it by flicking my hands. I hurry past it (the freeze wears off in a minute or two) and around the corner, trying to be as quiet as possible so the men holding my team don't hear me. I peek around a corner as the men force my team down steps and cover the entrance. I wait a minute before I remove the cover and go down the ladder. I conceal the entrance and I can hear voices to my left. But before I move I take out a pencil and paper so as I follow them I don't have to remember where to turn and so I can get out of here easier. I follow them, always looking out behind a corner waiting until they turn to follow. We eventually reach steps where there are lights. They get everyone up them, which is hard considering they have bags over their heads. As soon as everyone is gone, I climb the steps and follow the loud complaints of the man that was shot. They go through a door and into a hallway. It has lockers up and down the sides so it's safe to say it's a school. I follow them to an auditorium. I can't go through the doors though because they'd definitely see me, but I can look through the windows in the doors. I see Hal being escorted out by a woman at gunpoint, but they leave through an exit at the right. I was so busy looking at Hal that I didn't notice that everyone but Tom was being escorted out and coming this way. There isn't any classrooms close enough that I can run into to hide, so I run to the corner as my team is pushed through the doors. The door is pushed open, covering my body, blocking anyone from seeing me. I hold my breath though because there is a guy holding the door open, his hand not an inch from touching me. Dai is roughly pushed forward and he stumbles, looking back at the man who pushed him and his eyes find me through the window, but he covers it and looks away quickly. He starts walking again and the man holding the door follows, the door closing and I'm left there stunned that I wasn't seen. I take a deep breath, trying to think clearly with all the adrenaline running through my system.

I go and look around the corner to see where my team was escorted and see them walking into a classroom two doors down. I run in the other direction to the access tunnel so I can get reinforcements from the Second. I get into the tunnel and am following the directions I wrote down when I hear Hal's voice and a woman's voice. I decide to follow it instead; maybe it'll be quicker way out of this maze. Plus there are probably skitters and mechs all over the armory. I write the route and am relieved when it's only a ten minute walk before I get outside. I see the woman, whose name I just learned is Maggie, but I don't see Hal. I step out of the shadows and raise my gun, but somehow she must know I'm here and she spins pointing her weapon at me. I react and freeze her. She isn't completely facing me, so maybe she hasn't seen me. I run after Hal, but I can't catch up with him. I know where we are, so it's easy to get back. I run into the camp and into the house I talked to Weaver in this morning. Weaver's there, but Hal isn't.

Weaver sees me. "Laura, where've you been? Hal told me that you were never captured."

"I followed them and mapped out the route of where to find them," I tell him breathless and take out the paper. He's silent so I take this moment to tell him everything else.

"They're in a school, there are at least ten of them. One's injured and the woman, Maggie, escorted Hal out and is waiting for him. They left Tom in the auditorium while they put everyone else in a classroom with four guards. In the auditorium there's Tom with the leader and the injured man," I list off. Weaver stands there thinking.

He finally nods and says, "Ok, we can work with this. You take Hal, Mike, O'Neil and Ryerson and go back to get them. Mike's next-door watching Hal." At this statement I raise my eyebrow, wondering why Hal would need to be watched.

"I have to stay here and get the civilians out," Weaver says.

"Yes sir," I say and me, O'Neil and Ryerson run outside to go get Mike and Hal.

We get upstairs to the room Mike and Hal are supposed to be in, but they're not there. But the dresser is up against the closet door and someone is pounding on it. I open it and its Mike. He tells me about how Hal overpowered him.

"Ok, well we don't have enough time to go tell Weaver about this, but I will tell him when we get back," I warn Mike. Mike picks up his weapon and we make our way outside where Jimmy stops me. We hug and he says he that Weaver told him I was missing.

"I'm fine Jimmy, but I have to go and get Tom and everyone else," I tell him.

"Can I come?" he asks hopeful.

"I'm sorry Jimmy, but not this time, plus you're not suited up and we're really in a hurry," I say and I try to leave. He grabs my arm though and whispers "Make sure you come back."

I give him another hug, but don't promise him anything. I leave signaling the rest of the group to follow.


	6. Chapter 6

I tell the rescue team about how Maggie was waiting here for Hal to return, but she's not here, so I know that Hal has already been here. We work our way down the tunnels and ten minutes later we reach the school. I lead them to the classroom that Dai, Anthony and Karen are in, but they aren't there. That's when we hear two gunshots and we race to the auditorium. I look through the window and see Maggie has just shot two of her own people and has cut Hal free and is cutting Tom free. I take a deep breath in relief since I had feared the worst and tell my men to stand down. I walk into the room, but they don't notice me.

"Well I guess we were a little late, huh?" I say. They turn to face me and Tom smiles.

"I had hoped you got back ok," Tom says.

"After I mapped out how to get here, Weaver gave me some backup. I guess we didn't need it. Dr. Glass, what are you doing here?" I ask, staring at her confused.

"Later, we have to stop Pope; he's going to try and rob the Second Mass," Tom says as Maggie hands him a gun and gives my team their weapons back. Anne is hurrying to pack up her medical supplies.

"How do we get out of here?" he asks no one in particular.

"This way," Maggie says and we all follow her.

We are almost to the meadow when we see Pope and his gang and Tom stops.

"Alright, Maggie knows a short cut for the civilians to get out of this meadow. I want Anne, Laura and Maggie; go help Weaver evacuate the civilians and tell them that we're going to try and stop Pope," Tom orders. Anne nods and starts to walk away with Maggie hesitantly following her. Tom sees I'm confused why I'm not going to fight Pope and he whispers to me.

"I still don't fully trust Maggie, so I need someone I do trust to watch her."

"And you trust me?" I ask.

"I think you've shown me today that I can. Plus you're Jimmy's sister and he told Weaver that we can trust you," he says.

"Oh course he did," I mutter under my breath.

I nod and run after Anne and Maggie. We have to make our way out through civilians running the other way, but we get to Weaver eventually.

There's shooting, so I assume Tom has reached Pope.

"Alright- what's that? Who's firing those guns?" Weaver asks nobody in particular.

"It's Tom, you have to get everyone to follow us," Anne says.

"Take em' Mike, take em'," Weaver orders.

"Let's go," Mike says and I watch as Weaver runs in the opposite direction. I want desperately to go with him; to help Tom and Hal. But I reluctantly follow Anne and Maggie. I catch up with them as they run in front of everybody and start guiding them in the right direction.

"Anne, you should go ahead. Me and Maggie will bring up the end," I shout to her over the commotion.

"Ok, met you there," she shouts back and leaves. Maggie and I keep guiding the flow of people when the gunshots stop. I keep an eye out for Jimmy, but I can't see him in all these people. Once all the civilians have made it through, I go with Maggie at the end of the line. We arrive at the school thirty minutes later and try to get everyone settled. Mike takes over for Weaver and we get people into the gym, where the windows are high up. We have everyone talk amongst themselves and wait for Weaver and Tom to return.

Not ten minutes later, they get here and I'm relieved to see that they all made it. Weaver approaches us and we fill him in on what he missed, which isn't much at all. There are a few cuts and scrapes because people rushed to leave so fast, but Anne took care of that.

"Ok, we have the GTO and a few bikes, but there are still some vehicles there, not to mention the tents and supplies," Weaver says. "I want Tom, Hal, Laura, Karen, Dai and Anthony to go back later today. There's probably an airship still covering that area, so be careful."

A chorus of "yes sirs" goes around and we go to restock on ammo and other weapons we might need. I never fired any bullets, so I'm ready to go, but the others used up a lot of ammo and I know it's going to take a while. I take this time to find Jimmy. I walk through the crowd and try to get a glimpse of him. I can't find him though. It's when I finally see him across the gym that Hal comes to my side and says that it's time to move out. He follows my gaze and smiles.

"Go say goodbye, I'll tell Tom. He won't have a problem waiting, he understands what it's like leaving someone behind to go and fight," he says sympathetically.

"I thought you were his only family?" I ask, looking at him instead of Jimmy.

"No, I have two younger brothers; my youngest is Matt, and the second oldest is Ben," he tells me. I nod.

"I can't wait till I meet them, if they're anything like you I suspect we'll get along just great," I say and we both laugh a little.

"I have a younger sister, Marie, that was taken and a younger brother, James that was taken as well. My parents were killed," I say.

His expression gets serious again and he says, "I'm sorry."

I nod, "Me too, but they're gone and I know that where ever they are, it's better than this place."

I laugh and say, "Who knows, maybe to get to heaven you have to live through hell, or as we call it, planet Earth."

I look back at Jimmy and see he's still there and start to push my way through the people to get to him, leaving a thoughtful Hal standing still.


	7. Chapter 7

The Next Day

Me, Tom, Hal, Karen, Dai, Maggie and Anthony are on a rooftop, scouting out the hospital that Maggie said she saw harnessed kids at. I'm standing next to Maggie while everyone else kneels and sits beside the wall of the roof. Tom looks through a pair of binoculars at the kids below and across on other rooftops.

"Ben's on the roof," Tom says as he passes the binoculars to Hal.

"Looks like their scavenging scrap metal," Hal comments.

"That's exactly what they're doing," Tom says.

"They flew here in space ships and turned kids into slaves just to collect old toasters and copper wire," Maggie says.

"She has a point," I say.

"There must be some reason for it," Tom says, turning around and sitting against the side of the roof.

"Do you think they know what's happening to them?" Anthony asks.

"I hope not," Tom says and I fully agree. I hope that they don't remember anything if we get those harnesses off.

"How many kids we trying' to grab?" Anthony asks.

"As many as we can," Tom answers.

"Ok, let's see what we're up against," Anthony says and holds his hand out for the binoculars. Hal hands it to Tom, who passes it to Anthony.

"Ok we got two mechs patrolling in front of the building," Anthony tells us.

"And there's that one behind back."

"Skitter by the collection plate."

"And another one inside the building."

"Seven of us, five of them, I like those odds," Tom says and I smile at how he can be so positive even after the end of the world.

Everyone gets down and sort of huddles together to make a plan.

"Alright, we do this now, as tired as we are and as low on ammo, low on supplies; losing Click was enough wasn't it?" Anthony asks to make his point. He's right, we were practically up all last night hauling the things from the old campsite to the school and we didn't restock on supplies before we left either; which now I think was stupid on all our parts.

"That's my son over there," Tom says and I can tell it's taking all his willpower not to run over there right now and get his son.

"I know, but we might only get one shot at this. Ok Tom, they're going to be here tomorrow and the day after that," Anthony argues and Karen peers over the side of the building.

"Ok, how about we-" but Tom's cut off by Karen ducking for cover, leaning into Hal as she does. We all get as low as possible because we don't know what happened to make Karen react the way she did. Nothing happening immediately, Tom gets up and starts to run and we all follow. We can hear the Mech firing at where we were as we retreat to the other end of the rooftop. I'm the last to reach the ladder when I see behind me that Tom isn't moving too fast because he's looking back at Ben. Hal's trying to get him to run faster. He grabs Tom's arm and Tom snaps out of it. When I see this, I climb down the ladder and the rest of the group is waiting for us at the bottom. After everyone is down, we start running back to the school with Tom in the lead. Luckily we don't come across any skitters or Mechs.

When we get back to the school, Anne is there to meet us.

"Welcome home," Anne says.

"Love what you've done with the place," Tom jokes, obviously sad that he didn't get his son- yet, I remind myself.

"Did you find Ben?" Anne asks.

"Him and about a dozen others, yeah," Tom says.

"Is he alright?" she asks, but I think that a stupid question, he's harnessed.

It takes a second for Tom to answer. "He's alive."

"Look there's some really good news," Anne says and someone pushes me rather roughly and I fall into Hal.

"Sorry," I tell him, angry at the man who's now talking to Tom.

"Did you see my daughter?" he asks, holding up a picture and I'm not angry at him anymore.

"No, no I'm sorry, we didn't really get that close," Tom says and more people surround us, holding up pictures and asking if we saw their children.

"Hey, come on, break it up, give them some space," Mike says on top of everyone else.

Everyone gets quiet, but then the woman next to him protests.

"We have the right to ask."

"And no one's saying you don't, but we all have missing kids; including Tom here," Mike points out.

"And you," Tom says, pointing at Mike.

"That's right, my boy Rick," Mike says sadly.

"Ok, look everybody I know what you're going through. We all just want to get our kids back; and I promise that we're going to do everything possible to make sure that happens," Tom says.

That's when Anne steps forward and walks to a board. "Ok, look, there's a school board here, why don't you guys take your pictures and post your missing kids up here."

"Yeah, great idea," Tom agrees.

"Yeah and write their names, hair color, weight, height," Anthony adds.

"Last time that you saw them," Tom says moving forward with everyone else.

"Anything that you guys can think of that'll help us identify them."

"I promise that all the squads will check this board before each and every mission. Ok?" Tom says. He gets his answer when everyone starts tacking their pictures up.

I take a picture out of my vest of me, Jimmy, Marie and James. I look at it for a moment and walk forward to put it up, and then circle Marie and James's faces. Once I do, I stand back and look at all the pictures, trying to sear every face into my brain. And then I begin to count them, the faces and the smiles and all the lost loved ones and I can't believe how many there are.

24.

That's how many pictures are up there and how many families are grieving for the children on them.

"Is that you're sister and brother?"

"Yes," I tell him.

"Ben's picture isn't up there," I notice.

"Yeah, well the only picture of him that survived my dad has. He carries it around everywhere," Hal says and he steps next to me.

"That's my only picture of us kids, but I do have a family picture," I say, taking it out. It's actually a Christmas card.

"My mom liked to design her own Christmas cards and send them to my aunts, uncles…" I falter.

"What is it?" Hal asks.

"Most of my family lived in D.C.," I say and he knows what I mean. D.C. was nuked and leveled. No one survived. He's silent.

"You said most?" he says, probably trying to give me hope.

"Yeah, my aunt, uncle and their son and daughter lived in Charleston," I say, turning away from the board to look at him.

"Hey Laura, can you give me a hand?" Jimmy shouts from behind Hal carrying a box.

"Yeah," I yell back and he keeps walking down the hall.

"I gotta go," I say to Hal and start walking past him to Jimmy.

"See you in hell," he says and I roll my eyes, knowing that he's referring to our previous conversation.

"Yeah, yeah," I say and smile and he laughs. I get to Jimmy and take one of the boxes since he's carrying two. It's really heavy and I can't imagine carrying both of them.

"What's in these?" I ask as we lug them down the hall.

"Medical supplies," he says.

"Ah," I say, should've knowing from the smell of disinfectant that's coming faintly from them.

We reach a four way intersection and I ask which way.

"This way," he points and we walk into what appears to be a science classroom where Anne is waiting for us.

"Thank you so much," she exclaims.

"No problem," I say, putting my box down on the closest table while Anne takes Jimmy's. Lourdes is putting things in varies cabinets.

"Need any help?" I ask.

"No actually, but people are setting up things in the gym, some of them might need some help. But you look really tired, maybe you should get some rest first," she says looking at me.

"Fine, mother," I say sarcastically.

"Sorry, it's my job to be overly concerned," she jokes with me.

"Ok, but if you need anything and I mean anything, you just come get me," I say. Jimmy comes to stand by me after talking to Lourdes and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Come on kiddo, let's go, I have a surprise for you," I say, steering him to the door.

"I'm not a kid," he complains.

"Yeah and you're also not short," I say sarcastically. I'm a head taller than him and some more. He scowls and I laugh. I lead him back to our room that we were assigned yesterday and have him sit on the bed, which is actually more like a semi-comfortable stretcher. The room is actually pretty private considering that we have to share it with many people; Tom, Hal, Matt, Jimmy and Karen. The Masons' beds are up against the far wall with Karen's next to Hal's. Mine and Jimmy's are on the wall to the right of theirs.

"Close your eyes," I say, not wanting him to see where I keep it. He obeys and I reach underneath the bed and pull out a backpack, the one I came here with. I take out a book wrapped in a cloth, it's not very thick or heavy, but it'll probably get there when I'm done with it. I place it in front of him and uncover it.

"Ok, open," I say and he does and is shocked.

"You're going to let me see it?" he asks it disbelief.

"You're thirteen now, your ability should be showing soon and I think it's time," I say.

He reaches forward to open it, but I grab it.

"And you promise not to tell anyone about it and that you will handle it with care?" I ask seriously since this book has been in our family for generations.

He shakes his head, agreeing and I put it in his hands. He carefully opens the plain cover to the first page. It doesn't have a title, but a symbol stamped on it. (*By the way, the symbol is the story image)

"I'm going to go turn in my gear, how about you keep looking at this, but remember not to let anyone see it," I say as I walk out the door. I'm allowed to keep my gun and ammo I have, but the C4, not so much. I sling the gun over my shoulder and walk down the hall to the room next to Weaver's "base of operations". I put the C4 in its labeled box and decide to go to the gym to get a bowl of food for me and Jimmy. I get there and see Matt sitting alone, looking very sad.

"Hey Matt, it is Matt right?" I say smiling.

He looks up and says yes, but then he looks right back down. I kneel beside him.

"How about you join me and Jimmy for something to eat and then we can play a game or something after; whatever you want to do," I ask, but he doesn't answer, just sits there in silence, staring at the same spot on the floor. I pat his knee and get up to look for Tom, maybe he can get Matt to tell what's got him so down in the dumps. I see him walk into the gym and jog over to him.

"Hey Tom, I can call you Tom right?" I ask.

"Yeah Laura," he smiles and I walk with him.

"Well, I'm worried about Matt," I say.

"Is he ok?" Tom says worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, but I just talked to him and he seems depressed and I was wondering if maybe you could get him to tell someone what's bugging him," I say.

We stand near to bleachers and he looks at Matt.

"Yeah, thanks Laura, for telling me," he says.

"Anything I can do to help," I say smiling and walk to get that food.


	8. Chapter 8

Jimmy and I spent hours looking at the Book and I had to literally take it away to get him to stop looking at it. We ate, talked, laughed and he even had a few stories from before I was here. But eventually Dai comes in and says that we're moving out in five minutes.

"Thanks," I tell him and he leaves. I get up; grab my jacket, backpack and gun. Everything's already packed and loaded since I knew we were going to be leaving tonight.

"You know you don't need that," he says, nodding at the gun in my hand.

"Yeah, but it would look odd me leaving without one," I joke as I sling it over my shoulder.

"Bye, Jimmy," I smile and we hug.

"Bye sis," he says into my shoulder. I leave the room and meet Tom, Hal, Karen and Dai in the corridor.

"Where's Anthony?" I ask; my gun slung across my body. It was a least half my size, black and sleek.

"Not coming," Tom says, "Mike is." As soon as he says it, Mike appears next to him.

"Ready?" Tom asks him and Mike nods, knowing he's late, even if Tom doesn't mind.

"Ok then," Tom says and we start to walk to the front exit.

We pass the board and Tom stops right in front of it, looking at it intently. I do the same, bowing my head, knowing that some of them are probably dead, if not harnessed.

"Ok, let's go," Tom says his voice a little thick. We all walk past it and Dai is still looking as he walks. I'm the last one out of the building. We go to the pickup truck in the parking lot. Dai takes the wheel with Tom sitting up front with him. The rest of us climb into the back. Hal sits next to Karen while I sit next to Mike. We ride there in silence, but once we get there Tom starts filling us in on his plan.

"Ok, Hal and Karen in the building across the street. Mike and Laura with me and Dai stay here with the truck running. There's car that I'm going to put some C4 in. That's how we kill the mech patrolling right in front of the building. Once I blow it, Dai you better come fast. We grab Ben, put him in the truck and we all ride away. That means that Hal, Karen, you guys better run fast to get to the truck because as soon as that C4 blows, more skitters and mechs might come running," Tom explains.

"Everyone got it, know where to go?" he asks and everyone nods.

"Ok, then, let's go."

I follow Mike and Tom as Hal and Karen split off and waits to run into the building. A skitter is patrolling the building, circling it, so as soon as the skitter turns the corner, they sprint for it. They hide right in the doorway.

We (me, Mike and Tom) kneel down behind a pile of rubble.

"Ok, so there's one group already here," Tom says. I look for Ben; I had seen his face from a picture Tom showed us all. I see someone I know, but it's not him.

I tap Tom's shoulder as he looks through his binoculars.

"It's my sister," I whisper.

"Where?" he asks.

"There," I point. He looks back through his binoculars and finds her.

He puts a hand on my shoulder, "We'll get her ok, her and Ben."

I nod trying to contain my happiness, "Ok."

He waits until the mech disappears behind the side of the building before saying, "Ok, I'm going to go plant the C4, you two run behind that pile of debris."

Then he disappears to place the C4 in the car. Mike and I run to the hiding place and look at Tom hiding the car above the tire of the car. It's a remote detonator so he doesn't need to roll out any cord. That's a good thing because he would expose himself if he had to do that.

He waits until the mech disappears behind the building before he runs to us. He takes out the detonator from his pocket and is about to place it on a piece of rubble when he looks at me.

"Do you know how to use this?" he asks. I shake my head and he explains it to me. It's rather simple, just flick this little lever down and boom. He hands it to me and I handle it carefully. Tom takes out his binoculars from his other pocket and waits for the mech to come back. I look for my sister again and find her.

The kids are collecting the scrap metal just like they were doing yesterday. There are about three piles that I can see. The only difference is that there aren't any kids on the roof throwing metal down.

A skitter comes around the corner and walks into the building.

"They didn't see the explosives in the car, that's good," Tom says as he stares through his binoculars. Mike leans forward. A mech comes around the corner.

"What's going on?" Mike asks.

"The first crew's here," Tom says.

"Ben with em'?" Mike asks.

Tom shakes his head. "I don't see him."

Tom continues to look through his binoculars. I'm much calmer than I would think. After all I'm surrounded by the very things that wiped out like 99 percent of the human race and my sister is within reach.

"There's another group," Tom says, moving to get a better view and I lean forward hopeful.

"I think I see him," Tom says. Tom stares through the binoculars for a moment and I bite my lip in anticipation.

"Nah, it's not him," Tom says finally.

"It's Rick," Mike says and I turn towards him.

"What?" I ask.

"It's my boy," Mike whispers.

"Where?" Tom asks.

"By- by the building," Mike says like he's being rushed.

"Ricky!" Mike says, standing up.

Tom and I react the same way; by trying to stop him by grabbing him and saying to don't do it and to be quiet.

"Cover me," Mike says, shaking us both off and making a break for his son.

Tom and I hold up our guns just in case. I know that I can't freeze something from that far away. Mike gets to his son and is practically dragging him away when a mech comes around the corner. It raises its gun and I notice it's near the C4, close enough to be killed by it. Tom reaches for it, probably having the same idea I do, when I flip the switch and duck for cover. I run after Tom towards Mike and cover them as the pickup Rick and throw him into the truck Dai just drove up. Mike jumps into the truck as well.

"I'm going after Ben!" Tom says at the same time I say I'm going after Marie. We run together towards the building when a mech comes forward on the roof. We slide to a stop, reaching out to balance each other and run the other way as it raises an arm. We hear it fire a mini missile and I'm thrown off my feet. I hear gunshots, I think, I hope. I feel a hand on my arm, helping me up, but everything is blurry and muted. Two other strong arms grab my shoulders and I'm in the air again before my back hits the cold metal of what I think is the truck before I blackout.


	9. Chapter 9

I wake up and I open my eyes, but it's still blurry. Everything's still muted, or maybe it's just because nothing is being said. I sit up and everything returns to normal like someone flipped a switch. I see Mike carrying Rick and Dai standing over me like he was about to pick me up.

"Ow, what happened?" I ask, touching my hand to my head and seeing blood on it.

"You were running from a mech when it fired, creating an explosion that you were very close to," Dai fills e in, but I now remember everything.

"Where's Hal? And Tom and Karen?" I ask, looking around to see that none of them are here.

"Hal and Karen were… stuck there at the hospital. Tom went back for them," Mike says.

"How long ago did he leave?" I ask, getting up.

"Not even ten minutes. Why?" Dai asks suspiciously. I start to pick up my backpack and gun.

"Which way?" I ask.

"No, you can't go after him," Dai says.

"And why not?" I ask and they look at each other, neither having an answer.

"Now I'm only going to ask again before just picking a direction and you don't want to be responsible for having me get lost and dying. So which way?" I ask my voice hard. Dai sighs and reluctantly points behind him. I brush past him, walking fast knowing that I should catch up to him soon. Even with my ability, it's creepy in here. I take out my flash light and start walking in what I think is the direction of the hospital. I hear screams and break into a run, shutting the flashlight off. I come around the corner and see Tom beating a skitter in the head with a shotgun and run over to him. I catch his arm, thinking that's its dead.

"Tom, Tom, calm down," I say and he stops. His breathing is heavy as he slides down the wall to sit. We sit in silence, both exhausted.

"I thought we were going after Hal and Karen?" I ask, still looking at the skitter that's still breathing.

"We were, but I don't have any more bullets left," he says, looking at the shotgun. I nod and Tom gets up and grabs rope from his pack. He starts to tie the skitter up and I get up, helping him. We each grab a rope and start lugging it in the direction of the school.

We reach the school and the fighters on guard duty look confused at us and alert, as if the skitter was going to jump up and kill everyone. We get inside and everyone instantly comes around us. Word spreads and people start to run into the halls to look at us. Weaver comes through the crowd right in front of us and we stop.

"Tom, Laura," Weaver says astounded and I let Tom do the honors.

"Captain Weaver, we brought you a prisoner of war," he says as people whisper through the crowd.

We step aside as Weaver walks forward closer to it.

"You beat this thing yourself?" Weaver asks.

"Yes sir," Tom says loudly.

"How?" Weaver says, stepping forward some more.

"Just got to get close enough," Tom says with a small smile.

"Can I trade this in for an automatic?" Tom asks, holding the shotgun towards Weaver.

"Where you think you're going?" Weaver asks and Jimmy comes to me and gives me a hug. I smile at him return it with my one free arm (other is holding my gun).

"I still have two sons and a scout out there," Tom says determined. I like how he just calls Karen "a scout", she's rather mean.

Weaver takes the gun, but looks like he knows he shouldn't be.

"Century, give me your weapon," Weaver says, but takes it before Century can even really give it to him.

"I'll give you two fighters," Weaver says.

"Count me in," I say.

"No, it's safer if I do this alone," Tom says, looking at me.

"I'm coming," I say determined, but then I get dizzy and Jimmy steps in the hold me up.

"Maybe not," I say, holding my head as Jimmy puts one of my arms over his shoulder.

"Get her to Dr. Glass now," Weaver orders Jimmy.

"You sure?" I can hear Weaver ask and Tom say yes.

Jimmy helps me down the hall to Anne, where he puts me on a bed. I lean back onto it grateful.

"Thanks Jimmy," I tell him, closing my eyes.

"No problem," he says, sitting on the bed next to me.

Anne comes over to the other side of the bed and I open my eyes.

"What happened to you?" she asks, putting on some gloves.

"Mech, explosion," I say simply and I know they'll understand. She opens a bottle of alcohol and gets out a cu-tip and a bandage. She opens the bandage and dips the cu-tip into the alcohol.

"This might sting," she warns.

"I just got blown-up, I think I'll be ok," I say joking. They smile, which was what I was going for. She was right though, it does sting, but my headache is much worse. She finishes and puts the bandage on it.

"I recommend you get some sleep," she says as she takes off her gloves.

"Trust me when I say I have the same idea and am going to go do that right now," I say, Jimmy giving me a hand up. I lean against him a little, but not as much as before.

"Give it a day and you'll be fine, maybe a slight headache," she says and I notice a boy lying on a bed.

"Is that Rick?" I ask, pointing.

"Yeah, we're going to try and get the harness off. Dr. Harris is just getting ready," she says, looking at Dr. Harris. I nod my head.

"I hope it works," I say honestly.

"I'm going to go get that sleep," I say, pointing over my shoulder.

"Come on Jimmy, doc has more important things to do, plus I have some good news," I say.

"What?" he asks.

"When we get to our room," I say. Once we get there I sit on the bed and pat the spot next to me.

"Ok, what is it?" he asks eagerly.

"When we were looking for Ben, I saw Marie," I say and he bursts with happiness.

"Is she ok? What is she doing? Are you going to go get her back?" he asks all at once.

"Slow down, slow down," I say, "She's fine, they're having her collect scrap metal and yes we're going to try to get her back the next time we go for Ben."

He hugs me to the point where I can't breathe.

"Jimmy… can't breathe," I say, but he doesn't let go.

"I know," he says and he let's go. I playfully smack his arm and we both laugh.

We talk for a few minutes before I get sleepy.

"Ok, Jimmy, I know you have dish duty tonight, so go. I'm going to go get some sleep," I say, lying down. I'm very sleepy all of a sudden and I can feel Jimmy pull the blanket up on me.

"Night Laura," he whispers and I'm out.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning I wake up later than I thought I would. I would guess it was about nine to ten. I get up and Jimmy's not here. I'm already dressed since I fell asleep with my clothes on. I get up and wonder the halls looking for him when a lady comes up to me. She's wearing a vest and has a gun so it's safe to say that she's a fighter.

"Captain Weaver needs to talk to you in his office," she says.

"Ok," I say, not really sure what to say to that.

I follow her to Weaver's office where Weaver, Tom, Dai, Mike and Hal are standing around the room.

"Hal, your back," I say, sort of surprised. Hal looks up, but doesn't meet my eye. Now I'm starting to get suspicious.

"What's going on?" I ask nervously since none of them want to meet my eye. Weaver hands me a picture.

"Is this your sister?" he asks.

I look at it. "Yes… why?" I say keeping it.

"Hal told us that when he and Karen we stunned by the mech, he woke up and saw the mech kill the other kids in Rick's group," Tom says sadly. I close my eyes, already knowing what that means. I feel the tears come to my eyes. _Not here_, I think.

"My sister, she's, she's…" I stutter, not able to say it. After my father, mother, and now my sister; I don't think I'm going to be able to hold it together. Mike steps towards me.

"I'm so sorry-" but he doesn't finish because my hand slaps his face so hard he stumbles back. I make no move towards him, but someone still grabs my shoulder.

"You have the nerve to… we could've gotten all of them, your son, Ben and my sister, but you just had to… Now I have to go tell Jimmy that his sister, his best friend is dead," I can't go on because the tears are falling. I run from the room, I think I ran into Hal on the way out. I'm lucky my room is close because I don't want people to see me like this. I reach the room and sit on the bed, crying into my hands. I stay like this for minutes before I notice someone in the doorway.

"What do you want?" I ask him.

"Nothing, I just… wanted to know if you were alright?" he asks.

"No, no I'm not," I answer.

Hal sits beside me.

"Is it wrong for me to blame Mike?" I ask, staring at the ground.

"I don't know, but I think that right now you need someone to blame," he says and I look at him.

"Do you blame yourself?" I ask.

"Oh, I blame myself for many things," he says, his eyes glazed over.

"So do I," I say.

"I have to tell Jimmy, oh my god," I say, knowing that he's going to take it hard, really hard.

"Were they really close?" Hal asks me.

"They were twins, can't get closer than that," I say, looking at him.

"You don't have to do it alone, you have friends here," he says and he places his hand on top of mine.

"No, I have to do this alone," I say, taking his hand, "But thank you."

He gets up, "If you ever need to talk, you can always come find me."

"Same for you," I say as he leaves, closing the door behind him. I sit for a minute, trying to think of how to break the news to Jimmy. I can think of a hundred different things, but none of them seem good enough. He's so young to have to deal with this, so innocent. And Marie, oh god, she was too young to die. I hate the skitters, I hate what they've done to us. All the pain and all the hate they've caused. True there was already pain and hate, but now there's even more, it's just directed at skitters and not at other humans.

Two fighters come into the room and snap me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, sorry. We just came for the cot," the female fighter says.

"Oh," is all I can say.

"I'm sorry… about your sister," she says.

"Thanks," I murmur.

They go and pick up the cot. I guess that they need every bed they can get.

I try to clear my mind as I get up and head to the gym, since that's probably where Jimmy is.

I'm walking down the hall when I see Tom talking to Matt through the glass doors. Shouldn't Matt be in class? I walk through the doors and stand next to Scott, or as the kids call him, Uncle Scott.

"But I can fight too; some of the other kids are learning how to load guns, even shoot," Matt says.

Tom rubs his eyes and says, "Well that's the other kids."

"But dad-" Matt protests.

"Matt I said no," Tom says tiredly. "We'll be back soon, go on, go back to class. Scott will you take him?"

"I can do it," I say, deep down I know that I'm doing this to stall from telling Jimmy about Marie's death. Tom looks at me.

"You sure, I know you, um… got some things on your mind," he says, struggling to find the right words.

"Yeah, it's fine," I say, "Come on Matt."

Matt walks to me and I put my hand on his shoulder. I open the door for him and he mumbles a thanks.

"What do you think?" he asks suddenly.

"I think, I think that what I think doesn't matter. He's your father, not me," I say.

"But really, what do you think?"

"I think that it's between you and your dad. But if you must know, I think he's right, you're too young," I say and he starts to protest.

"BUT," I say, quieting him, "Things are different now and you have a point, you might need to know how to use a gun, just in case. But it's not for me to decide, you have to talk to your dad and work it out. Make a deal, like he'll teach you how to load a gun and then you have to wait a year before he teaches you how to shoot it," I say and we come to the classroom.

I open the door and push him through.

"Matt, there you are," the teacher says.

"Thank you Laura," she says.

"No problem, just trying to help," I say.

"Matt, what do you say?" the teacher says in tone that I've never liked.

"It's ok, he already said thank you," I say and close the door before she can say anything else.

I'm walking down the main hall towards the gym when I see him talking to Lourdes in front of the missing kid's board. He has a gun; Weaver asked me earlier if he could give Jimmy a gun. He said Jimmy wouldn't be doing anything extreme, just patrolling the halls. I agreed and Jimmy was happy and I was happy. I wait for Jimmy and Lourdes to finish their conversation before approaching him.

"Hey sis," he says cheerfully. His smile disappears when he sees my face.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Not here," I whisper, "Come on."


	11. Chapter 11

I'm sitting alone in the hall right outside where Jimmy is sleeping. After I told him about Marie, he hasn't stopped crying, not until he fell asleep. I can't sleep though, even if Jimmy can. I'm afraid my nightmares will come back. We skipped dinner, not that I think anyone will notice, but I'm getting hungry now. I sigh, the kitchen will be closed or all of the food will be gone, or both; probably both.

Tom and Hal came back a little before dinner and I saw that Dai was shot in the leg. I was bored, so I went down and learned how to stitch up a bullet wound. Then I came back here and have been sitting here ever since. No one's approached me; word got out of Marie's death and I guess they know that I need some alone time. The only people in the hallways now though are the fighters making their rounds.

I was so enclosed in my thoughts that I didn't notice someone walking towards me until they brushed my arm as they sat down beside me. It's Hal and I smile to myself.

"You can't sleep either?" I ask.

"Nope," he says.

"Karen?" I ask.

"Yeah. Marie?" he asks.

"Yes," I answer. We sit in silence for a few minutes, but it's comfortable.

"I have nightmares," I say all of a sudden. He looks over at me.

"About what?" he asks.

"Did you really just ask that question?" I ask since obviously any nightmares now in days are always about the skitters and Mechs.

"Right," he says and shakes his head.

It's quiet again for a few seconds before I tell him.

"The first day of the invasion, Marie was taken. My dad ran out from our hiding spot and stupidly tried to save her. A Mech shot him. I had to drag my mom away from his body," I say. He doesn't say anything and I know I probably wouldn't know what to say either.

"And you; what are your nightmares about?" I ask. He looks like he's about to protest and say he doesn't have any, but I raise my eyebrow and he sighs.

"My mother, Ben, Karen," he lists. I told mine in a little more detail, but I take what I can get.

"Are you afraid to go to sleep too?" I ask.

"No- ok, a little," he says, looking at his feet.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed about," I say, making him look at me. "I bet even Weaver has nightmares still." That makes him feel a little better; I can see it in his face.

I lean my head against the lockers.

"I remember that first night I found Jimmy here, I slept more peacefully than I ever had since the invasion. And now it seems like the nightmares are even worse," I say and he looks confused.

"I was happy to see him and relieved that he was ok, but before I was alone; I thought that I had no one left. I didn't have to worry about anyone. Now I always dream of him being killed or harnessed and me losing him," I say.

"Don't worry, he's not on the front lines like we are and he has a gun and knows how to use it. I think that he's the most likely of us to survive," he says and it comforts me some, but then it brings a new question to mind.

"And what if I die? You just said it yourself; we're on the front lines," I say.

"Well then he has everyone here to help him, just like you would have if you lost him," Hal says, which comforts me not at all. I turn to look at him better.

"Promise me something. You have Matt and your dad, but it's just me and him. Promise me that if I die or am taken, that you'll be there for him and help him," I say determined to make him agree. He doesn't answer at first, but agrees.

"And promise me that you'll take care of my dad and Matt if something happens to me," he says and I agree.

"So tell me what happened today," I ask.

"Well, Weaver sent us to get more bikes. Pope said he knew where some were so we had to take him along with us unfortunately because he knocked Dai out and left with one of the only bikes that worked," Hal retells.

"Well at least we don't have to worry about Pope anymore. And that's one more fighter that can be doing something more useful than babysitting him," I say and Hal nods in agreement.

We sit in silence for minutes before I yawn.

"I guess I could sleep after all," I say and get up. "You coming?"

"No, I'm going to stay up a little longer," he says.

"Ok well, see you tomorrow," I say.

"Goodnight," he says and I walk into my room, closing the door behind me.

I grab my pajamas and walk into the hall to get to the bathroom. Hal isn't there anymore though. I get changed and walk back into my room. I see Jimmy lying on his side. I can just barely make out the tear tracks on his cheeks. I feel the tears start to well up again and pull my cot closer to his. I lie down and take his hand in mine.

"I promise you Jimmy, everything is going to be ok. One day, I promise," I say. I didn't know that Hal was listening from outside the door.


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning after a long conversation with Jimmy, I change out of my comfortable pajamas and gear up. I go to Weaver office. The doors open, but it looks like Weaver is talking to someone, so I wait. When the man walks away, I knock and Weaver invites me in.

"What can I do for you?" he asks politely.

"I want to go back out there; I know that Hal and Margret are going to get some drugs for Ben, I want to go with them," I say.

"You sure, it's understandable if you need a few more days," he says concerned.

"People… people die every day, especially now in days. I'll be fine; Jimmy and I talked it over and we both think it's for the best," I say, mentally adding that I just need a distraction because if I don't get one I think I'll fall apart.

He thinks for a minute. "Ok, it'll be you, Hal and Margret. Meet them out front at dark. I'll tell them you're coming. If you're late, they'll leave without you."

"Yes sir," is the only thing I can think of to say and I exit the room.

After the mission, which was very successful thanks to Margret, we pull back into the school; Margret in the lead, then me, then Hal.

"I thought you guys were going to leave me in the dust after that last turn," Hal says as we get off our bikes and start pushing them.

"I paid attention when Pope taught me how to ride. Figured I'd have to outrun him some day," Margret says, but I don't say anything.

"What you got?" I can hear Anthony ask from behind me, but I just continue to walk forward, not paying attention to Hal and Anthony's conversation.

"So are you ever going to tell me how you knew where all these drugs were?" Hal asks from my right after catching up.

"What were you, a junior in high school?" Margret asks.

"Senior," Hal corrects.

"What about you sweetheart?" Margret asks me.

"College, second year," I answer.

"I thought you were nineteen?" she asks. If you graduate at eighteen, then you would be twenty if you are in your second year of college.

"I skipped a grade," I say.

"Let me guess, kindergarten," Hal says.

"Nope, junior year," I say.

"Impressive, but you both are telling me you didn't know where the local dealer kept his stash," Margret says, "What did you do in your free time?"

"I played volleyball," I say.

"I played lacrosse," Hal says.

"That explains a lot," Margret says, looking at us both.

We get inside and put out duffel bags down on a table.

"Percocet, and demurral, oxycontin," Margret lists as she rifles through her bag.

"And heroin," Anne says as she holds up a package of it.

"I don't think I've ever even seen heroin before," Tom says as he comes in and places a bag on another table.

"It looks a lot like cocaine. You learn the difference when you watch a lot of late night cop shows; which is what I used to do when I couldn't sleep," Anne says, leaning on the table and I smile.

"I once had a student give a thesis on the history of the American police drama," Tom says as he takes the package from Anne. "I graded him down because he didn't mention Miami Vice."

I can't tell if he's kidding, but he must be.

"Really?" Anne asks, but Tom doesn't answer. Margret walks past me on the way to the door.

"This is amazing, thank you," Tom says to me and Hal. I point at Margret at the same time Hal does and Tom shouts a thank you to her.

"Thank you Margret," he says loudly.

"Yeah," is all she says and Hal and I follow her out.

The next day I get up and gear up just like any other day. I put my hair up, my jacket on and my gun over my shoulder. Jimmy wakes up at the same time and gets dressed. It's still a habit of mine to sleep in my clothes, so I don't have to change; which is good considering I'm in a room with all boys. Only rarely do I sleep in the pajamas Anne provided. Tom and Hal are already gone, but Matt is still here sleeping. I put my finger to my lips, telling Jimmy to be quiet so we don't wake him up. I leave, shutting the door behind me so Jimmy can get dressed in peace. There are curtains like things that we put up as barriers between families. It gives you a little privacy. I go down for breakfast and see I'm early and the food isn't ready yet, so I lend a hand.

"Aunt Kate, you need any help?" I ask. She's not really my aunt, but everyone calls her that.

"Sure dear, come over here," she say kindly. I smile and walk over to her. She shows me how to cook the oatmeal, which looks more like lumpy mush, and tastes even worse.

"I've never been on kitchen duty before," I say out loud.

"I know, I'm here every day for every meal," she says.

"Oh," I say. "But I thought that you rotate people through, so some days you're in the kitchen, others you're doing laundry…?" I trail off.

"Yeah, but no one knows how to cook with the equipment we have, so I stay and teach the people as they rotate through. Eventually when everyone knew how to work everything, I just stayed here. I pretty much watch over everything," she says. "Plus, an old woman like me can't do much," she says.

"Oh, you're not that old. You can't be more than what, thirty?" I joke and she laughs.

After the meal is cooked, someone shakes a bell and everyone lines up. I notice how Weaver isn't here, so after I eat I decide to bring him a bowl of this "delicious" oatmeal. I grab a bowl and Aunt Kate looks at me wearily. There's only enough for one bowl for one person.

"For Weaver," I say to her.

"Ah," she says, so she must've noticed that he hasn't been here this morning as well.

I fill up the bowl and grab a spoon. I walk through the halls until I reach his "office". I knock on the door, but he appears to be alone, sewing something onto a shirt behind the desk.

"I brought you something to eat," I say holding up the bowl.

"I'd rather have the civilians eat first," he says.

"They already have, this is the last bowl. I literally had to scrap the bottom of the pan to get this," I say, putting it on the desk in front of him.

"Thanks," he says, slowly reaching out and taking it. He eats it and makes an expression, I barely saw it at first, but it was there and I can't hold back a smile.

"Not the most tasteful, I know, but its food," I say, leaning back on the table in the center of the room. I think he smiles at that comment.

"You know I think that's the first time I've ever seen you smile," I say also smiling. He's silent for a moment.

"Thank you for the breakfast," he says.

"Yeah, well I figured you'd forget if I didn't," I say.

"Is this how you should talk to your commanding officer?" he asks and I want to roll my eyes.

"This is how I talk to a person. You military types seem to forget that at the end of the day, you're just regular people with regular feelings and regular lives. Well I'm not all military, so I seem to be one of the only ones that remember that," I say.

"Regular lives…Nothing about this world is normal," he argues back.

"No, the world has changed from normal to something else entirely. But that doesn't mean the people in it have," I say and he's quiet.

"How are you so… wise, for someone so young?" he asks.

"I had to grow up, even before the skitters came," I say as Tom and Hal come into the room, looking anxious.

"We just got the report from the recon team; a group of harnessed kids didn't come back last night. Ben's group is still there, but we don't know for how long; drugs are ready, we want to move," Tom moves to the table, so I move away from it to let him unfold his map.

"I'll just leave," I say as Weaver walks past me.

"No, I want you here," Weaver says, pointing to me. My eyebrow's rise in surprise, but I stay.

"Show me what you got," Weaver says, turning back to Tom. I look at Hal, who's surprised too by Weaver wanting me to stay, but he also looks a little… proud. I'm not sure if that's the right word or not, maybe admiration or respect.

I walk around the table so I'm standing directly to Hal's left and listen as Tom says his plan.

"There's a Mech here, we rip out this window and go in. We assume that the noise wakes up the skitters and draws the Mech. The Mech comes around, it gets blow up right here. Inside we got two men on this door facing the hallway, continuous fire once the skitters show up. That leaves six men on the room to kill the skitter," Tom lists off and Weaver and I exchange a glance because there are many flaws in it that Tom's overlooking. I can't blame him though, it's his son.

"Hard to time," Weaver interrupts.

"Got the kids, get them back out that window and disappear into the woods," Tom finishes. And there's a brief moment of silence where I can feel Tom's hope that Weaver will approve of this plan. I don't like the plan and think we're all going to die, but I'll go. If Marie was there, then James might be too since they were taken around the same area.

"Tom, in battle, the more important the objective, the easier it is to overlook flaws in the plan," Weaver says slowly.

"Now if the skitters break through into the room or circle around outside to intercept you, you fail," Weaver says, pointing out some flaws. Tom looks at the map and nods.

"I can accept that risk," Tom says.

"It's not just your risk, it's the team's risk and it's Ben's risk. What happens to him if the two of you get yourselves killed?" Weaver says and I know/hope that last part about Ben will make Tom see the true risk. I see Tom glance at Hal.

"Now with your plan, the first thing you do is wake the skitters up; there goes your tactical advantage. You want to keep them asleep as long as possible," Weaver says and Tom fiddles with the map as he thinks.

"What if, um," Hal says a little timid as he approaches the table, "Well if we keep them asleep the whole time, because there's just that one mech there during the day. So we send the recon team in, they break the lock on the back door. Then tonight they come in and just one guy goes in alone, you know, and goes in, goes to Ben's room and kills the skitter while it's asleep."

Weaver and Tom share a glance and it's actually not a bad plan.

"There not that easy to kill Hal." Except that part.

"Well you did it," Hal retorts, "Almost."

"Getting in and out quietly is your best bet, probably you're only bet. Figure it out," Weaver says, which pretty much ends the conversation and Hal and Tom pack up and leave. I'm left standing there rather awkwardly though.

I'm about to leave too, but something's bothering me.

"Captain Weaver," I say and he looks up, "Why did you want me to stay and hear that?"

He sighs. "Because I see potential in you. You aren't just a soldier, you really care. We could use someone like that; someone who can see the military side and the civilian side clearly, someone who isn't biased to one side. So when the civilians and fighters argue over something, I know someone can make the fair decision. We need that," he says.

"You see potential, potential for what?" I ask, but he doesn't answer.

"You better get some rest, as soon as Tom figures out a better plan; you'll be going with them. Oh and I'm permanently assigning you to Tom's team. You can act as a scout with Hal," he says and I nod.

"Thank you, sir, but I refuse to salute," I joke and this time I know I see a smile on his face.


	13. Chapter 13

I get out of Weaver's office and don't know what to do for the first time that I'm been with the Second Mass, so I just wander around. I look outside the windows at a garden like area where the kids are playing soccer. I smile, remembering how I liked to play games. Maybe not soccer but I loved volleyball and kickball. I wasn't that good at kickball, but I was able to help my team. I dominated in volleyball though, I was one of the best and my coach's favorite. I liked that feeling of favoritism; it was the first time a teacher or person ever showed it besides my parents.

I walk outside and walk around the game. They even painted sidelines and everything. I remember that the gym teachers had paint cans stored in sheds with gym equipment and would have to redo the lines every other day.

I see Lourdes sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree while reading a book. But she doesn't appear to be getting too much reading done because she's watching the game. I walk over to her and sit down next to her. I take the gun off my shoulder and put it on the ground so she can't see it. I know she's seen guns before, but I always found it intimidating and unsettling when someone walks up to you with a gun.

"Hey Lourdes, what are you reading?" I ask able to sound a little cheerful.

"Just some random book I found in the library. It's called Matched by Ally Condie," she says looking at the cover.

"It looks interesting, what's it about?" I ask her trying to start a conversation.

"It's about a girl who lives in the future where everything is chosen for you by the government, choice is non-existent. The government just showed her who her husband is going to be, but for a second she though she saw someone else, Ky. So she goes to find him and finds herself falling in love with him, but it's like a forbidden love because the government wants her to be with Xander, not Ky," Lourdes says.

"Sounds like my kind of book, forbidden love, corrupted governments and breaking the laws to get what's fair," I say and she laughs. I'm not sure if she thought I was joking, but that really is the kind of book I like.

"There was another copy in the school library if you want to read it, but you will not be able to take this book away from me," she jokes and we laugh.

"And I think I will go find it, right after WE," I accentuate the "we" part, "play some soccer."

I grab her hand and run up to Matt right as they were starting another game.

"Hey Matt, you got room for two more?" I ask.

"Sure, but one of you will have to be on the other team to make it even," Matt says.

"You can be on Matt's team," Lourdes says to me.

"Ok," she agrees since it's not like we going to argue about it, it's just a game.

I introduce myself and the other kids on my team tell me their names too. I haven't been around the other civilians, let alone kids, so I don't know any of their names.

"I have to warn you, I'm bad with names, so don't be surprised if you have to tell me them more than once- or twice," I warn as we line up for the game to start. Matt is starting with the ball and kicks it right to me and the game has started.

There's a boy keeping score on the sidelines with a piece of paper and a crayon and after fifteen minutes it's tied up- 14 to 14.

I pass it back to Matt and he passes it to another kid, whose name I think is Henry. Henry is going down the field when Lourdes gets the ball from him and starts going the other way. I run to them and distract her while Matt comes up behind her and steals it from her. I laugh at the shock on her face and we run towards Matt who looks like he's about to try and score. Matt kicks it- hard-, but the goalie still blocks it and it bounces off his shin. He doesn't look hurt, but I know that it must've. But lucky for me the ball comes straight toward me. Unlucky for me, it's headed straight for my stomach. I move to the side and put my knee up so the ball hits it and drops in front of me and I kick it back into the goal, scoring the winning goal.

"Wow that was amazing!" Matt exclaims as he comes over and hugs me. I drop to my knees so I can return it.

"You moved so fast, like a blur and then the ball was in the goal and we won," Matt says all in one breath.

"Matt, calm down and breathe. If you want I can teach you how to do something like that," I say. Honestly I learned that from volleyball. In one of my games, a teammate of mine hit the ball, but it didn't go where I thought it would. So I had to literally kick it over the net, which was still legal, and it must've hit my foot and the angle must have been perfect because it went straight over.

"Really?" he asked excited.

"Really," I mirror.

"But first we have to find the right type of ball," I say, I pick up my gun and take his hand, leading him inside to the gym. Luckily the door isn't locked so we go right in. There are basketballs, soccer balls, kick balls, those soft squishy balls, lacrosse sticks, etc. And then I see the rack of volleyballs. I pick one up, but it's kind of flat so I grab another one. I make sure it's soft so Matt's arms won't hurt as much.

"But that's a volleyball?" he asks confused because he wanted to learn more about soccer.

"That move that I did to score that last point, I learned how to do when playing volleyball," I say.

"How? Soccer is nothing like volleyball," he says and I grab a soccer ball too.

"Well, the ball came my way and hit my foot and bounced right back over the net and we won because of that," I smile.

"Cool," he says.

"Come on," I say and I close the door behind us.

"So have you ever played volleyball before?" I ask as we walk through the halls to get back outside.

"A few times in gym class," he says.

"And how'd you do?" I ask.

He shrugs. "I wasn't bad, but I wasn't really good either."

"That's ok, I have a feeling that you're going to be better than half the kids I've played with," I say and he smiles.

"Can we ask Lourdes to play too?" he asks and now it's my turn to smile.

"Of course we can," I say. We pass the med room and I hear something. I hand the ball to Matt.

"Hold this for a second, I'll be right back," I say and I walk through the door. I hadn't even taken one step into the classroom before screaming from both a man and a skitter echoed throughout the halls. I get closer to the man and see it must be Dr. Harris. I have my gun, so it's instinct to take it off and point it at the skitter, but I can't shoot at it because the doctor is in the way.

"We need to shoot it," Uncle Scott says as he runs into the room.

"I know," I say as I move to the left to get a better shot.

I shoot through the bars and take off one of its legs. It drops the doctor and squeals out in pain.

Anne moves to Harris to take his pulse as Scott leans over him.

"He's dead," she says as she looks at Scott. There's a moment of silence before I say something.

"I'll go get Weaver," I say and walk out of the room. I make sure to close the door so no one can see what happened inside. Matt is still standing there with the ball.

"Hey Matt, go talk to Lourdes for a few minutes I'll be out there soon, I promise," I say to Matt and take off down the halls. I'm not exactly running, but my speed does turn a few heads.

The door is closed so I guess that Weaver is talking to someone important but I don't care. I burst through the door and before either Weaver can say anything, I do.

"We have a situation," I say. Weaver looks at the people that he was giving orders to and comes to me.

"What kind of situation?" he hisses.

"Dr. Harris is dead," I whisper to him so no one else can hear. His expression grows mournful than dark.

"Show me," he says and we leave the room without another word.

We walk to the med room and he pauses when he first sees the body. I see Anne has draped a white sheet over it. He walks forward and kneels next to Dr. Harris. He folds back the sheet to see Harris's face and then stands up.

"Get a runner out to Porter, he won't be happy," he says to a woman on his right and she leaves.

"We need to form a burial detail," Weaver says and looks at the skitter, "And we need to kill it. Now."

"Porter wouldn't want that," Anne speaks up.

"Dr. Glass, when the civilians find out about this they are going to panic and in this case I cannot blame them," Weaver says and then points at the skitter. "We never should've had this thing here in the first place."

"We have it here for a reason and that reason is still valid, studying them is our best chance at figuring out how to stop them. And I was making progress," Anne protests.

Weaver's silent for a second so I decide to jump in.

"She has a point Weaver; if we could figure out where to hit this thing, we could kill skitters without wasting so many bullets," I say. I'm standing behind Weaver, and he doesn't turn around to look at me when I say this. He just turns his head a little so I know he acknowledged what I said. He looks at the skitter one last time.

"I will give you twenty-four hours to learn whatever there is left to learn from that thing and then I am coming to kill it myself," Weaver says and then he brushes past Anne. Anne sends me a thankful glance and then I walk out the door too. I know Weaver didn't want to keep it alive, so I hope he's not that angry with me that I sided with Anne.


	14. Chapter 14

After Matt gets tired, we stop playing volleyball and soccer, so Lourdes and I hit the volleyball around for a few minutes. I like to play with her because she's ready good, maybe better than me. But then Lourdes says that she has to get some things together for Sarah's baby shower.

"You should come," Lourdes says to me.

"I don't know, I haven't even met Sarah," I say.

"It's alright, she won't mind. Plus I could introduce you today before the shower tonight," she says and I nod.

"Ok, how about at dinner?" I say and she agrees and she goes inside. She took her book, so I decide to go get the other copy in the library. I pick up my gun and go inside and go to the library. No one's here so I just go to the non-fiction section and start looking for it. I find it eventually and there's another copy too. I guess it was popular. I walk back to my room and start reading it. I get to the third chapter when Weaver walks into to my room.

"Weaver?" I ask.

"Since Dr. Glass is determined to keep the skitter alive, I want you to guard it, so nothing happens to her like Harris," he says.

"Ok, but why me? Is this some sort of punishment because I sided with her?" I ask curious. I really don't object to the guard duty, but I wonder why me.

"It's not a punishment, but I still don't agree with you and Dr. Glass in keeping it alive. I see your point, but I think that the risk far outweighs the chance that we might learn something. And it's because of this risk that I'm putting a guard there and there's no one more I trust that can do it than you," he says and my eyebrows shoot up in surprise at that last part.

"Yes sir," I say and look down to get my gun. He's gone when I look back up.

I've been standing here next to the cage for an hour while Anne tries to communicate with the skitter with pictures. It's not very entertaining on the count that nothing happens. I don't think the skitter really understands what she's saying or maybe it's just ignoring us. Probably the latter. That's when Tom and Hal walk through the door. Anne puts down her pictures and walk over to them.

"What can I do for you guys?" she asks.

"We need to figure out how to kill one of these things," Tom says nodding his head in the skitters direction, "without any noise."

"Without making any noise," Anne repeats pacing in front of them.

"Yeah," Tom says.

"Do you think it's going to be sleeping in some sound proof chamber with its head in a guillotine?" Anne jokes and Tom slightly chuckles.

"Probably not," Hal says almost depressed. Anne's thoughtful for a moment.

"There is one thing," she says looking at the skitter.

"Mike hit him-it, in its mouth the other day; it seemed to knock it unconscious. We know that there's a soft palate. If a nerve center is in there, we know that it's connected the base of the brain stem," she tells us as she pours some water into a metal bowl.

"That means theoretically," she says and she picks up a scalpel and asks me, "Can you open that?"

I don't say anything, but I just walk to the window in the cage. Tom looks at her and she gives him a look back that silences him. I take the lock off and slowly lower the window. Anne carefully places the bowl on the window and picks up something behind her.

"Anne?" Tom asks cautious.

"I'm not going to let Hal risk his life on a theory," she says as I step back.

"Anne, don't-" Tom tries to protest, but is silenced by the skitter screaming from an electric shock. Anne throws the stick down and opens the cage quickly before the skitter can recover. She then grabs the skitter with one hand while sticking a scalpel in its mouth with her other hand. It struggles for a second before it drops to the ground and we all stare. Anne turns around holding her hand up that's dripping in skitter yuck. She drops the scalpel and we stare at her. Tom is disbelief and concern and Hal with shock and a little admiration. And me, I don't even know what I'm feeling about what she just did.

"Ok-k, t-that w-worked," Anne stutters before she rushes past Tom and Hal into the hallway and Tom follows her. Hal looks back at the dead skitter on the floor and I still can't believe she did that. She always seemed like she couldn't hurt a fly, but at the same time it's a wonder how she didn't do it. The skitters killed most of her family. I heard she had a husband and a son that were killed.

"Um, I'll go get Weaver," Hal says, his voice emotionless with shock. I nod and he walks away.


	15. Chapter 15

I'm crouching down behind a car with Hal to my left as Dai and Anthony run to my right to take cover in some bushes.

"Ok, tell me," Tom demands and grabs Hal's arm.

"Left at the first corridor, lobby. Then at the second corridor right, the next corridor's Ben's, the south corridor; third door on the right," Hal lists off the directions to Ben's room.

"Reference," Tom says.

"The one on the east, southeast," Hal says.

"Weaver told you that the slower you go the less noise you're going to make," Tom says.

"Yeah, I got it," Hal says a little impatiently. I understand because Tom is treating him like a child and not the adult he is- or had to become.

"What's the distress signal?" Tom asks.

"I yell help as loud as I can," Hal jokes and I chuckle underneath my breath.

I hear Tom laugh a little too before he tells Hal not to joke.

"One flash out the window," Hal finally answers.

"What's the ready signal?" Tom asks.

"Three flashes," Hal answers.

"Alright turn around, let me see that thing," Tom says. I hear the Mech somewhere and look around as Tom talks to Hal.

"You know, that ever since you were a little kid you could do anything with your body, with your hands. You threw a perfect football when you were two," Tom reminisces.

"They call it a spiral, dad," Hal corrects.

"Yeah, and you could be stubborn. Sometimes that's a good thing. Anything you wanted to get done, you got done. If anybody could do this, it's you," Tom tells Hal.

"Alright fifteen minutes, give me that signal or I come in after ya," Tom says seriously. Hal says something back, but I can't understand what it is. Hal starts to walk towards the hospital, but he doesn't even get one step before Tom tells him to come here and gives him a hug.

"See you in a few," Tom says. Hal brushes my back as he walks behind me and around the car. Hal looks at me and I smile and whisper, "Good luck," but I'm not sure if he heard me. Hal races out, looking for the Mech as he does and makes it to cover right as the Mech comes around the corner. We all crouch down to avoid being seen. It lets out one of those moans that makes my skin crawl and then walks off. I can see Hal slip in the door and then there's nothing left to do but wait. As the minutes tick by I see Tom constantly looking at his watch ad I find myself doing the same, just less. Twenty minutes later I find myself getting worried.

"It's been twenty minutes. How long should it take him to get to Ben's room?" I hear Tom ask Maggie, since she's been to this hospital many times.

"Not this long," Maggie says and Tom puts his gun around his neck.

"Alright, I'm gonna go check on him," Tom says and picks up his crossbows. He runs behind me to Dai and Anthony. He kneels beside Dai and looks like he's about to ask Dai something when a Mech comes out from behind some bushes. They lay down so it can't see them and I get further behind the car. It disappears behind a smaller of the hospital buildings. Tom rises onto his knees right away and everyone else slowly rises. Tom walks out fast and Dai tries to stop him.

"Tom, we need to wait for the signal!" Dai states and Tom either doesn't hear him, or doesn't care. I immediately run after him and everyone else after me. We cross part of the parking lot before stopping behind a car to take cover.

I'm right behind Tom and Maggie says over my shoulder to Tom, "You got a plan boss?"

"I can get to Ben's room, I might be able to find another entrance," Tom answers. The Mech comes out of the bushes to the right and right in front of the car. I mean like a few meters away.

"No, no, no. Go, go, go, go," Tom says as he turns. I get up and I feel his hand on my shoulder, hurrying me forward.

"Back," Maggie tells Anthony and Dai. We squish together to stay hidden at the end of the car.

"Ok, I know another way," Maggie whispers to Tom.

He looks at her before saying, "Show me. You guys stay here and wait for the signal."

"I'm coming with you," I say getting up and following Maggie across the parking lot before Tom can protest. We make our way across to a door marked 'Employees only." I move to it and Maggie puts her gun up and aims at the door. I count to three in a whisper she can hear and open the door. Maggie moves in first, and luckily there's nothing there. Tom quietly shuts the door behind us. Maggie leads and looks around a corner. She turns to us and nods her head. She walks down the hallway, sticking close to the wall with Tom a little behind her and to her left. I'm between Tom and Maggie. We turn a few more corners and are at the door when we hear a skitter making a noises and rush in. Tom basically kicks the door open since he has his crossbow in both of his hands and Maggie and I follow.

Hal and the skitter are struggling as Hal tries to stab it in its mouth just like Doctor Glass did. Tom moves around them, trying to get a good shot when the skitter grabs Hal b y the throat. They struggle some more with the harnessed kids clawing at Hal to pull him away from the skitter. That's when Tom's crossbow goes off and the arrow flies- right at Hal.


	16. Chapter 16

Everything slows down and I swear I can literally see the arrow flying through the air. Just as it's about to hit Hal I react and freeze it. I can't see Tom's face, but I know that he sees the arrow just hanging in the air and how it froze right as I gasped and put my hands out. But then the skitter throws Hal to the floor and Tom snaps out of it. He fires another arrow at the skitter, hitting it right in its side. It hisses and looks at Tom with what I think is hatred, but then Hal gets up and shoves his arm in its mouth. The skitter fights a little and then drops to the floor. It's still fighting, so Hal bangs its head into the floor a couple times and I hear it take its final breath. Tom moves to Hal who is crouching next to the skitter. Hal takes his arm out of the skitter's mouth and Tom whispers to him. That's when the arrow chooses to unfreeze and it embeds itself in the wall. Tom hears it and sees it, and then he glances at me. But he looks away because Hal gets up and he knows he has to get Ben. I hold out a pistol and Hal comes to me to get it.

"We're taking all of them," Tom declares and Hal nods. Hal then goes over to the window and takes out his flashlight from his pocket. He flashes it three times out the window as I open the window next to it. Anthony and another guy I don't know appear.

"We gotta go," Maggie says, walking into the room.

Tom helps Ben stand and I move to the kid closest to me. They seem to be saying goodbye to the dead skitter. I pull a kid away from it and guide him to the window, where Anthony is waiting. He picks the boy up and hauls the top half of him through the window. I lift his legs up and Anthony drags the rest of him through the window and then hands him off to someone else who takes him away to the truck. I step back as Maggie comes to the window with another kid and I go back for someone else.

When we get back to the school I help move the kids into the med room where stretchers are waiting. There are a bunch of people here, so many that I bump into a few. I'm not medical personnel and I'm not one of the volunteers that Dr. Glass gave instructions to, so I decide that I'm just getting in the way, so I leave. I pass Dr. Glass on my way out and I hear her shout orders at everyone. I walk into the hallway and see Hal sitting by the lockers throwing a ball at the wall.

"Shouldn't you be in there with your dad, for Ben," I say sliding down to sit next to him.

"There are too many people in there as it is; I'd just be getting in the way. Plus I don't do well around surgery," he answers, continuing to throw the ball.

"Really? You? You just stuck your hand up a skitter's mouth and you get squeamish around a little blood," I say.

"Ya, well we all have our weak spots," he says. Then he stops throwing the ball and looks at me.

"But then, we also have our moments when we do something amazing," he says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I saw it. When my dad fired the first arrow, I saw it stop. In mid air," he says.

"And you know that I was responsible?" I whisper.

"I saw you, at the same time it…" he trails off, looking for a word to describe the arrow just stopping in the air.

"Froze," I supply.

"Froze. At the same time it froze while it was in the air, I saw you put up your hands. And what was more surprising for me was that you weren't surprised when you saw it frozen," he says. Even though I should be worried that he knows the truth, for some reason I'm not.

"I-" I start to say when Tom comes out of the med lab.

"Dad, the guards told me that he pulled through, how is he?" Hal asks very alert all of a sudden.

"He's still unconscious, probably until sometime tomorrow," Tom answers. That's when Tom turns his head toward me and I decide that I think it was time for me to go to bed.

"Well, I think I better be going to get some rest. I have to get up pretty early tomorrow," I say and I get up. Tom looks at me and I can see the wheels turning. I know that he saw me use my ability, and now I know Hal did too, but I don't know what Tom will do about it unlike Hal who just confronted me about it. Like will he confront me first, will he go straight to Weaver, or will he forget about it and say his mind was just playing tricks on him. I groan inwardly and think to myself that I need to stop thinking about this because Tom will do whatever he sees fit and there's nothing I can do but adapt after he does it. I almost chuckle; I just gave myself a little headache.

I walk down the hall and I can hear Hal and Tom talking behind me. That's when I run into Lourdes and I mean, quite literally, run into Lourdes.

"I'm so sorry Lourdes," I say and I help her up. She probably wouldn't have fallen if it hadn't been for the box of stuffed animals and lanterns she was carrying. She picks up the box and starts to put everything back in. I sling my gun onto my back and help her pick up the stuff.

"Thanks," she says.

"Hey, is all this for the baby shower?" I ask, having heard about it yesterday.

"Yeah, hey do you want to come? I know that you just got back so you might be too tired or something, but I think Sarah might appreciate it," Lourdes says. I haven't actually met Sarah, but I think it might be fun. I rub my forehead, actually hoping that I'd get to bed early, I've been feeling a little off today, but I think I could use a little bit of cheering up after Marie.

"Sure, I'll be there," I say, "I just have to do one thing first."

"Ok, well it's in the auditorium. We could use as much help as we can get to decorate the place," Lourdes comments and I nod my head.

"Ok, well I'll be there soon," I say and then leave. There's something about her that just annoys me, I don't know. She can be a little pushy sometimes, but she's still a really good person.

I go to my shared room and find that only Jimmy is there. Of course the Masons wouldn't be here, they're probably with Ben. I smile when I find that Jimmy is fast asleep. I walk past his cot to get to mine. I put my gun on my cot and take off my jacket, but put it back on when I shiver. I take off the pistol and belt and unstrap my knife from my ankle and put it next to my gun. I walk to the door ad as I pass Jimmy I see something under the blanket. It's the Book. It's upside down with the page he was reading still open. I pick it up and look at it. It says "To Create a Mind Link". That's fancy talk for how to talk to the dead. Even we can't communicate with thoughts or read other's thought, unless it's your ability. No spell or potion can replicate someone's ability. You've probably heard of people that talk to the dead like the show Ghost Whisperer. Well this is how you would do that in real life. You won't see the dead person, but you would be able to talk to them through your thoughts. I close the Book and wrap it back up in the cloth and place it under my bed. Then I put Jimmy's blanket over him since he kicked in onto the floor at some point. I run my hand through his hair gently since he's a light sleeper, even more so than before the aliens came.

"Oh Jimmy. I know you miss them, but you have to let them go, not even we can bring them back," I whisper even though he can't hear me. I make sure the blanket is tucked in tight so he can't kick it off again and leave, closing the door behind me.


	17. Chapter 17

I wake up the next morning and notice that no one's here and but Tom and Ben. Tom was up late last night, sitting with Ben, but Dr. Glass- sorry she wants me to call her Anne- said that he was stable and they could move him in here. I sit up and notice that I'm sweating, but shivering. I swing my legs over the bed and sit up and immediately I get dizzy from a head rush. I have a pounding headache and my mind is fuzzy. I take a deep breath and rub the back of my neck really not hoping that I'm sick and that it'll pass. I get up and I accidently knock a lantern over that was beside my cot. I hold my breath, hoping I didn't wake anyone. Tom rolls over, but doesn't wake and I sigh in relief. I'm still shivering so I pick up my jacket at the foot of my cot and put it on. I'm wide awake so I decide to get some air. I quietly walk over to the door and close it softly as I step into the hallway. I turn from the door and I see Hal walking toward me.

He smiles when he sees me. "So you finally got up sleepy head?"

"Y-Yeah," I stutter shivering.

When he sees this he grows concerned. "You ok?"

"I'm fine," I say, but I know that that lie wouldn't have even convinced a three year old. I look up at his face to see if he bought it anyway, but of course he didn't. He takes a step closer and puts his hand to my forehead.

"Well, it seems like you have a fever. Dr. Glass should be able to tell you for sure though," he says hinting for me to go see her.

"Oh, I really don't think she needs to be bothered with something as small as a cold," I say, but honestly I just don't want to be taken out of the rotation.

"Yes well, look at it this way. With how closely everyone is here, disease can be spread very easily. Do you want everyone to get sick just because you were too stubborn to go to Anne?" he says.

"No," I grumble.

"Good," he says. "No go, before I escort you myself."

"Ok, ok," I say and take a step forward. But as soon as I do I lose my balance. Before I can fall though, Hal's arms are around my waist holding me up.

"Sorry, head rush. Maybe you should give me that escort anyway," I say, looking at him. Our faces are very close though and I have to sudden urge to kiss him. I gulp and push that thought down, knowing that he's still hurting over Karen and that it would be taking advantage of him.

"Yeah," he breathes and for a second I swear he has the same thought I just did, but it was probably just me. He lets go but keeps an arm around my shoulder, just in case I fall again. We walk to the med lab where Anne and Lourdes are. No one else is here though, which must be nice for a change after all the commotion last night.

"Hey doc," Hal calls from the doorway. Anne sees us and focuses in on me, so I must look worse than I thought.

"Come sit up here," she orders all business like. Hal helps me up onto the table and Anne looks over me.

"So what are your symptoms?" she asks and takes out a penlight.

"Headache, dizziness, probably a fever, cold sweat," I list and when she hears fever she takes out a thermometer.

"Yeah she almost fell on the way over from that dizziness," Hal comments laughing and I narrow my eyes at him. Hal laughs again quietly to himself.

"So no nausea, just dizziness?" Anne asks and I nod yes.

"How long have you felt like this?" she asks and hands me the thermometer.

"I've felt a little off for the last few days," I say and then I put the thermometer in my mouth.

"Laura, I have to go, I have the night century duty and I need to get some sleep before that," Hal says.

"Ok and thanks," I say through the thermometer. He smiles that this and leaves. After a few minutes Anne takes the thermometer and looks at it.

"Well it's around 99, 100. I'm going to say you have the flu, just a milder version," Anne says.

"Great so I can go?" I ask ready to hop off the table.

"No, I want you to stay here just in case of any more dizzy spells and there's a less chance of anyone else catching this that way. Plus I've been meaning to ask you some things," she says.

"Fine," I consent, "And what do you mean by things?"

"Well Tom told me that you were going to college to become a psychologist," Anne says.

"Yes," I say.

"Well I've been trying my best to help everyone cope with everything that has happened, but I have no idea how to do that. The best I've been able to do is ask people to talk about their feelings and have them draw pictures. The drawing actually works well with the kids, but with the adults, I'm lost," she says.

"Well, with the kids, drawing is a great way to get them to express not only their feelings, but it could tell you things that they might not be able to talk about. Plus as the old saying goes, 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' Now with the adults, you just have to put it in terms that are more grown up then just saying, 'Ok let's talk about feelings'. Like say, 'You came here because you wanted my help, but I can't help you unless you met me halfway.' Or say, 'For me to give you help you have to help me figure out what's wrong.' This way you tell them three things; one, that you want to help, two, you remind them that they came to you because they know that they need and/or want help, and three, that you aren't just going to magically come up with the solution to all their problems unless they give you a little help. It's pretty much the same thing as saying 'Tell me what you're feeling' or 'tell me what's bugging you' just more elegant," I say and she is a little surprised.

"Also, it helps to read their expressions and body language. For example, if you say something and they flinch, then that means you might have hit a sensitive spot. This means you should probably skip it and come back and/or just beat around the bush a little more. Let them tell you whatever it is in their own time. Remember that everyone has their own pace and that you can't push them too fast because they might shut down and that it takes time for some people to open up. I know that some people just don't feel comfortable talking to a stranger and it takes time before they'll trust you enough to tell you some things," I tell her and she nods.

"Do you think that you could help me with the kids sometimes? It's really not my department. It's not that I don't enjoy helping them, but-" Anne starts to ramble.

"Anne, Anne, I know that you want to help, but everyone understands that sometimes you just need a break. Don't worry about it; of course I'll help out," I say. I shiver again and she sees this.

"Hold on let me get you a blanket," she starts to walk to a closet but I stop her.

"No it's ok, I think I can get myself a blanket," I say and get up and luckily with no dizziness.

She frowns, but consents. I walk to the closet that was once used to store lab supplies for a science class and see the extra blankets on the top shelf. I hear the door close shut and hear Anne talking to someone. It must just be someone else that's sick; I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only one with this flu. I reach up and just manage to get a blanket, but then another wave of dizziness hits again. I reach out to grab onto the shelf and close my eyes, hoping that it'll pass quickly. But this time it doesn't, in fact it gets worse and I kneel on the ground since I have a feeling that I'm going to pass out. I don't, but I've been kneeling on the floor for a few minutes. When it passes, I'm a little afraid to get back up because I don't want to get dizzy again, but I know I have to. I slowly get up and walk out of the closet. That's when I start to think; if I've been there for minutes, why didn't Anne come and find me? I mean getting a blanket would've only taken a few seconds, not minutes. When I round the corner I get my answer; Anne being held at gunpoint.

"Jack behind you!" a woman yells and the man, I assume Jack, swings around and Anne takes this opportunity to knock over a tray of medical supplies right into Jack. Anne runs around the counter, with Jack cutting her off from the door. I use this distraction to go after Jack, but he sees me coming. He turns to me and points the gun at me.

**Bang.**


	18. Chapter 18

When I see Jack point the gun at me, I try to find cover, but there's none I can get to in time. So instead I just hit the deck. Too late though. I feel the burning as the bullet as it enters my side.

"Laura!" Anne yells. Even though I'm lying on my stomach, I can still see everything. When Anne says this Jack turns his attention back to her. He points the gun at Anne and reaches towards her and takes the bag of medicine that she's still clutching to her chest.

"I'm sorry," he says, looking between me and her. He rushes him and his family out of the room. Anne crawls over to me and turns me over. I groan in pain, but don't complain anymore than that. That's when someone bursts through the door.

"Jesus, what the hell happened?" Weaver asks when he sees us.

"A man came in with his wife and kid and stole all the medicine and then they took off. We tried to stop them, but he shot her," Anne says, probably a little shocked at what she just witnessed.

"Is she all right?" I hear Tom ask.

"I don't know yet," Anne says. "Can you help me get her up onto the table?"

Weaver and Tom both take a step forward to help, but Hal rushes past them and picks me up before either of them can reach me. He quickly puts me on the table and moves out of the way so Anne can get to me. Lourdes appears next to Anne with a kit. It wasn't until now that I realize that Hal is holding my hand.

"Lourdes, I need you to cut her shirt," Anne orders and I can feel my shirt being lifted and I can hear the sound of the scissors tearing through it.

"We need to get the medicine back," Tom says.

"I agree, go get Mike. I'm going after this son of a bitch with you," Weaver says.

"Ok, so the bullet didn't go all the way through. It's still in there," Anne says and I can hear the dread in her voice.

"What does that mean?" Weaver asks.

"It means that I have to dig it out," Anne says and she sighs, not wanting to.

"So what's the problem?" Tom asks.

"They took all the painkillers," Anne says finally. Everyone's silent for a second before I speak up.

"Do it," I say.

"You'll be able to feel everything," Anne warns me. I nod quickly.

"Why don't you just wait until we get the medicine back?" Tom asks.

"Because we can't treat her until we get it out. If there's internal bleeding, by the time you get back there might be too much damage for me to fix," Anne answers.

There's another round of silence.

"Laura, your choice," Weaver finally says.

"Do it," I say. Anne nods and Lourdes goes to get the instruments.

Weaver and Tom make to leave, but I stop them.

"Can someone tell Jimmy what's happening?" I ask.

"I'll do it personally," Weaver says.

"Thanks," I say and suddenly I feel cold. Weaver leaves and Tom gives one last glance back, but I'm not sure at whom. Tom turns to leave when Anne remembers something.

"Tom, they have their kid with them," Anne says and Tom nods. I hear the door slamming shut and them Anne gets to work. She and Lourdes put on gloves and Anne picks something up, but I don't want to look anymore.

"Ok, I'm going to start," Anne warns me and I can hear her whisper to Hal, "You might have to hold her down."

"Wait. Hal, if Jimmy comes in, I don't want him to see this," I tell him.

"Ok," he says.

"Put this in your mouth, it might help," she says and I do. Hal puts his hands on my shoulders, just in case and Anne begins.

When I wake up, my head is fuzzy and I can feel a needle in the back of my hand. I guess they got the medicine back. I open my eyes and find Anne sitting beside me.

"How long was I out?" I ask looking around.

"A few hours; it's nighttime," she tells me, sitting up in her chair.

"Where's Jimmy?" I ask.

"He was put back on guard duty. He asked Weaver and Weaver thought that it might help; you know take his mind off things for a while," she says.

I nod my head. "That's good, the kid could use a distraction every once in a while. Especially with everything that's happened lately," I say.

"So, doc, how bad is it?" I ask, expecting it to be really bad. Hell knows the pain was getting the damn bullet out.

"Not as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't that deep; there weren't any internal injuries or bleeding. I'll say a day before you get out of here, but at least another day or two before you get put back on guard duty. And that also means no forward missions until I clear you and that probably won't be for a week, maybe two," she tells me and I sigh.

"Fine. Hey, what's going on?" I ask, seeing all the people running outside the doors and there's a bunch of yelling.

"Well, when Weaver and Tom went to get back the stolen medication, they ran into Clayton, from the Seventh Mass. Clayton came back with them and told us that the skitters wiped out the Seventh Mass and are headed this way. So we're evacuating," she says.

"You need some help packing?" I ask.

"We're halfway done, but if you want to help, sure," she answers.

"Well, I'll only take a minute or two for me to pack my stuff," I offer.

"Ok, just remember to take it slow, especially when walking," she says and gets up. I push back the blanket and find that I'm wearing my other shirt, not that I'm really surprised since they cut my other one to shreds. I swing my legs over the bed and slowly slide onto my feet. I wobble a little when I put pressure on my left foot because of my wound. Anne reaches out and steadies me and after I figure out how to walk without too much pain I'm helping Anne and Lourdes pack. After everything is either put in boxes or backpacks we decide to go get something to eat. We walk in the gym and instead of seeing people making dinner, we see them all crowded around in a sort of meeting.

"Everybody here wants the same thing; our kids to be safe," I hear Tom say.

"They'll never be safe, safe is over. We could die any day, and when that day comes, I'm going to be at my daughter's side," another man protests.

"I don't want anybody to die, this is about what it takes to survive," Tom says. We move closer so we can see what's happening. I see Tom and a man I don't know, but have seen around. I stand between Hal and Ben. When Hal sees me he gives me a smile before listening to the rest of the conversation.

"Yeah, well I swear to god that if anybody tries to take my little girl," the man says, reaching for his gun. Tom puts his hand over the man's hand that's reaching for his sidearm.

"Hey don't you forget who the enemy is," Tom says and the man nods after a second and let's goes of his gun. Tom removes his hand and takes a breath.

"Everyone here has had to make hard choices just to make it this far and we're going to make more. But if we fall apart now and we start turning on each other, then it doesn't matter when the attack comes because we've already lost," Tom says.

"And who's going to decide what we do if we're attacked? Weaver?" the man asks.

"No, I will," Tom states and there's silence at that answer.


	19. Chapter 19

After Tom says that he's the one that's going to be making the decision, the entire gym erupts with everyone trying to tell him what he should choose. But we can still hear overtop all the noise the shots from a Mech.

"That's Mech fire," Tom says.

"Where?" Mike asks.

"I don't know, but that's close," Tom answers, getting his gun ready.

"They're here!" the man screams.

"Keep it together, everybody stay inside. If you get the order to move, get ready to move," Tom says, running toward the fire. Anne and Lourdes are gone; probably back to the med lab. Hal takes his gun into his hand and turns to me. He takes my hand and starts running. He's walking normal pace, but it's hard to keep up with my injury.

"Hal? Hal!?" I say. He stops and looks at me.

"Please slow down," I say.

"Sorry," he says, his eyes flickering to my side. Then he starts walking again, but slower, his hand tight around mine. He stops at the med lab.

"Laura, wait here. I know you don't want to, but you're in no condition to fight right now," he says.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, no arguments from me," I say.

He chuckles and hands me a handgun.

"But you can have this, just in case," he says.

"Thanks," I say and he runs down the hall the way we came. "And be careful!"

I walk into the med lab and sit down on the chair closet to me, carefully as to not aggravate my wound. Anne sees this and walks over to me with concerned eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asks.

"Yeah, just all that walking didn't really help my injury," I say shifting in my seat.

"Here, let me take a look," she says.

"No it's ok, you might need to get ready for wounded," I say.

"You might have pulled your stitches, so I'm going to have a look," she says in a tone that I can't say no to. I sigh and she comes up to me. I pull my shirt up and she examines my left side. She removes the adhesive bandage and takes a look.

"Well, you didn't rip any stitches, so that's good. But next time just walk slower," she says, but her tone is joking as she adds that last part, even though I know she's also serious.

She sticks the bandage back on and I put my shirt back down. That's when Lourdes walks through the door. I can hear yelling and a Mech firing. It's getting light out when Weaver and Jimmy burst through the door. I can see that Jimmy is trembling and sweating. Weaver has a hand on Jimmy's right shoulder, as if guiding him.

"What happened?" I ask immediately jumping up from my seat and walking over to Jimmy. My side protests but I ignore it.

"I found Jimmy inside fighting off a skitter," Weaver says.

"Here, sit down up here," Anne says, patting the cot that I was on just this morning. Jimmy hops up and sits there fidgeting. He can't stop moving; he's probably in shock. I stand next to Anne as she takes out her stethoscope and finds Jimmy's heart, using her watch to find his heart rate.

"Ok, son, why don't you tell us what happened?" Weaver asks.

"Ok, well, I was with Parker in the bus when the Mech appeared out of nowhere and started firing. Then we fell to the floor, but Parker was hurt. The Mech tried to get in, but you guys distracted in by firing at it. And I was running and it was right behind me and I went inside and I…" Jimmy says talking at the speed of light.

"Steady, let me check you out," Anne says trying to calm him as she takes out a blood pressure cuff.

"A-a-and I knew I had to pull out the gun, so I pulled it out and I fired. Bang, bang, bang and I was out of bullets. And- and- I can't stop talking. Am I in shock? I might be in shock," Jimmy says still talking fast in not faster.

"If you were a little older, we'd give ya some whiskey," Weaver comments and I have to wonder if he has some whiskey stashed somewhere.

Then Jimmy tries to get up. Weaver and I put our hands on his shoulders, keeping him seated.

"It's ok, son," Weaver says.

"Jimmy, you need to calm down. Take some deep breaths," I say with a smile and he nods rapidly. Then Tom and Clayton walk through the doors.

"I'm telling you, we got lucky taking out that Mech," Clayton's saying.

"Damn lucky. Any more patrol ships?" Weaver says, moving toward them.

"Nah," Tom answers.

"Any skitters?" Weaver asks.

"Not yet," Clayton replies.

"Well, we might have dodged the bullet on that one; at least long enough for the Third Mass to get to us," I hear Weaver comment.

Clayton then sighs sadly. "The same thing happened to the Seventh. On skitter, one Mech, a scout patrol; sniffing us out."

There's a moment of silence; partially to honor the memory of the Seventh and for Weaver and Tom to think about what that means for us.

"How long to the next wave?" Weaver finally asks.

"As long as it takes before they realize that skitter's not coming back," Clayton says.

"Right," Weaver says, and then looks back over his shoulder at me, Jimmy and Anne. Then he whispers something to Tom; it's something about reconsidering an offer.

"I know," is all that Tom says and that helps me none what so ever. Then Tom leaves with Clayton following him. Weaver looks back at us and then leaves too.

"You done?" I ask Anne, my tone concerned and anxious.

"Yeah I'm finished," Anne says. I pull her aside and give her a look that says, "Tell me what you found".

"He's fine and he was right, he is in shock. He'll probably calm down in a few minutes, but until his heart rate goes down, I want him to stay where he is," Anne says and I just nod in response.

"Now how are you?" she asks.

"Me, oh, I'm fine," I say, but know that my attention is back on me, I realize that I'm having a little trouble breathing –probably from the flu- and that my bullet wound is throbbing a little. I guess that I was so worried about Jimmy that I didn't even notice.

"Really?" she asks.

"Yes," I say.

"Then why are you guarding your wound?" she asks.

"What?" I say.

"Your arm is over it like your protecting it," she says. I look down and she's right. I hadn't even noticed that I was doing that. I put my arm down to my side.

"Ok, so maybe it hurts a little," I admit.

"A little. And how much exactly is a little?" she pushes.

"I don't know. I guess one through ten; ten being the highest, it's a three. Its worse when I'm moving," I say.

"Ok that's not too bad. Do you want something for it?" she asks.

"No, it's not that bad, plus I don't want you to use all your painkillers on me. You might need them later for someone in a lot more pain than me," I say and as I get to the end, I'm almost whispering.

"Ok then. But if you decide that the pain is too much, just come and find me," she says.

"Ok, and thanks," I say.

"You're welcome," she replies. Then she walks back to Jimmy, but I don't listen in since it might be some doctor/patient confidentiality thing. After they talk for a minute, I notice that Jimmy's shaking and rubbing his hands up and down his arms like he's trying to warm himself up. I take off my jacket and hand it to him. He wraps it around his shoulders and I put my arms around him to help warm him up faster.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," I say. He mumbles something in response, but I can't understand it at all. I look at him and notice that he's falling asleep.

"Oh no you don't; you're too big for me to carry you to our room," I say. I look at Anne and mouth, "Can we go?" She nods yes and smiles at us. I help Jimmy stand up and guide him to the hallway and down to the room. I open the door for him and push him gently and he walks into the room and plops down on the bed. I'm not tired what so ever after being asleep for hours today. So I close the door behind me and go back down to the gym where I can hear the voices of many people talking. I lean against the door frame and listen. After a few minutes of hearing bits and pieces of conversation, I'm a little bored to be honest. But a few minutes later Tom walks in.

"Everybody," Tom yells and everyone stops talking and faces him.

"I've decided to send Matt and Ben along with Lieutenant Clayton," there's a murmur when he says this and I see the surprise on Hal's face when he stands up.

"This will put our kids a few hours ahead of what's coming and I think that that's a good thing. By tomorrow the Third Massachusetts will be here and if everything goes as planned, we'll be reuniting with our kids by tomorrow night," Tom finishes.

"We just got hit by a skitter; if they're still out there, how are you going to get through?" a man asks, that same one that Tom was arguing with earlier.

"With a small group on foot. We'll be ahead on the main skitter force, and way under their radar," Clayton answers, taking a step forward.

"If you're not-" the man starts to say.

"And they'll have a security detachment with them. O'Brian and Fuller," Tom says and I see two men step up.

"I'd like Mike to come too, if that's alright? We go back," Clayton says. Mike nods and Tom agrees.

"We know the skitters aren't after the youngest ones. The rest will go because our kids are our future and their safety has got to come first. So pack them up, they leave in an hour," Tom says. When Tom finishes I turn and head back to my room. The door's open and I go in. Hal's stuff is gone already and I think that odd since I know him and he wouldn't be going with Clayton; he'd stay and fight. But I push that thought out of my head for now. Ben and Matt are here though, talking and packing. I close the door behind me and walk over to my bed. I know that since I'm hurt and will just get in the way here, that I'll be going with Clayton; plus I am under twenty. I take out my backpack from underneath my bed. Most of my stuff is already in there, but I put the Book in there and the blanket. I put it next to my gun at the foot of my bed. I look over at Jimmy's stuff and start to pack that as well. There's not much; just a backpack mostly packed already, his gun, vest and a few other things, so I finish rather quickly. The only reason Tom gave us an hour is so parents can have some time with their kids before they leave. I decide to let Jimmy sleep until we have to go. I sit on my bed and realize how tired I am. Not sleepy tired, but just physically tired. I lay down with my eyes open and just don't think of anything. I look at Jimmy and how peaceful he is. I remember that this is how he used to be. Really gentle and shy, but I always loved that about him. Our other brother was always the loud and rough sibling.

After a long time, I look at the time and realize that it's time to wake Jimmy up. I stand up and walk over to his sleeping form. I really don't want to wake him up, but I know that I have to. I shake him by the shoulders and he starts to stir.

"Hey, Jimmy, it's time to get up," I say. He sits up.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"Tom made a decision; everyone under twenty is to go with Clayton," I say grabbing his backpack and vest from the floor beside him and put them on his bed. I then pick up my backpack from the foot of my bed and put it on. He slowly gets up, still sleepy and puts on his backpack.

"Come on," I say, putting my hand on his shoulder and I open the door for him and he sluggishly walks through it. I don't bother closing it. When we get out front, I shiver since Jimmy's still wearing my jacket, but I don't mind if he's warm. We stand in the center of a big crowd of kids.

That's when Jimmy decides to disappear. I watch him weave through the crowd until he reaches Weaver. I see them exchange a few words and see Weaver stick his hand out. Jimmy hesitates but takes it. That's when I decide to go up to Weaver next. Jimmy passes me on the way and stops, but I wave him to go so I can have a moment with Weaver. He goes back to where we were and I approach Weaver, who's still there since he saw me coming. I stand in front of him with a small smile. He opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't when I hug him.

"Thank you, for keeping Jimmy safe," I whisper into his ear and pull away. He doesn't have time to react because then I walk away. I reach Jimmy and see Hal standing with his brothers with a backpack on. I had hoped that he would come, even though at the time I thought it was super unlikely.

"Hey guys," I say.

"Hey Laura, Jimmy," Hal says. Jimmy looks at Hal and Matt, but refuses to look at Ben. I notice this and nudge his shoulder with my arm. He looks at Ben and weakly smiles. Jimmy looks down again and I want to roll my eyes. One of the things I hate the most is prejudice. But Jimmy will learn. Ben and Matt talk and goof off a little while I and Hal talk.

"So you decided to come with us?" I ask him.

"Yeah, I figured that they could use an extra gun," he says and I nod and say "ah" sarcastically.

Then Tom appears beside me. He looks at me and I get the message; can I have a private moment with my kids?

"Come one Jimmy, let's go find Lourdes," I say, knowing that they're friends somewhat; if the age difference wasn't so far apart, I might think they had a real shot at becoming a couple. Who knows, maybe they will, after all age doesn't always stop people from falling in love. Plus it's only six years; I mean there have been further age gaps. We see Lourdes in the crowd just as Clayton announces it's time to go.

"Alright, on me," he says. I see Hal, Ben and Matt behind me. Matt manages to sneak away from Ben to go back to his dad for one last hug. Then we start the long walk to Clayton's hideout.


	20. Chapter 20

About halfway through the trip, I notice the worried glances that Jimmy is giving me.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing, it's just you look a little pale and your breathings hard," he says.

"We've been walking forever Jimmy, we're all breathing hard," I say.

"Yeah, but our breaths aren't shallow and irregular," he says worried raising an eyebrow. I roll my eyes at his concern, but deep down I know he's right. My side is killing me and the walking isn't helping what so ever either. A few minutes later I stumble, but Jimmy catches me before I fall. When I look up I see duplicates of everything.

"I think that I need to sit down for a moment," I say and Jimmy nods in agreement.

"Right you are, I think that we all could use a break," Clayton says, who's honestly tired too.

I sit down, trying and failing not to out my head in my knees.

Jimmy sits beside me and hands me a bottle of water. I take some gulps of water, but save enough for the rest of the journey. I close my eyes, not feeling as bad now. That's when I hear Hal's voice from in front of me.

"You know that you could've asked to stop at any time?"

"Yeah, I know, but I didn't feel like I needed to until I tripped," I say.

"Yeah, I just don't you to hurt yourself ok. So as a favor for me, and for Jimmy, don't be afraid to ask to stop or for help," he says sincerely.

"I will," I say. "I'm not one of those people that will not ask for help just because I want to seem tough."

"Good, because those people kind of get on my nerves," he says.

"Alright, time to move out!" Clayton calls. I sigh and get up. My side always hurts the most when I get up or sit down, so instinctively I put a hand to my wound. I pull my hand back and see a little amount of blood on it. I quickly close my hand so Jimmy doesn't see and freak out. We're almost there, maybe another half an hour, so I decide just to wait until we get there to tell anyone. I know that I just told Hal that I'm not afraid to ask for help, and that's true. But I don't want to be a burden either. And when we get there I will ask for help anyway. My shirt is black, so it hides the blood well, plus Jimmy gave me my jacket back, so I zip that up.

A little while later we take a detour through a forest. I furrow my brow, since this makes no sense. Why would Clayton tell the Second Mass that we were going one way and then take us another? Apparently Hal had the same question. I can hear him ask about this from behind me.

"Wait, aren't we supposed to turn north here?" Hal asks.

"No we're going to turn here instead. I mean I don't want to take the roads with the kids, do you? Go through here we get to stay in the woods," Clayton says.

"Alright, cool," Hal says and they catch up with us.

At dusk we finally reach the Hidden Frontier Ranch. I like it; it's out of the ways, big enough to house everyone and rather charming. Not that I'd have ever wanted to live on a farm.

When we reach the house, we're first lead inside where Clayton says to get to bed. No objections from me after all that walking we just did; I'm exhausted and my side hurts almost to an unbearable point. Clayton puts us into a large room and I pick a spot on the floor. I put my bag down and sit down on the couch for a second. I can see a bunch of kids going back downstairs, probably to get a quick bite before going to bed. I unzip my jacket and can see that there is a huge wet spot on my shirt. I pull my shirt up and find the bandage is covered in blood. I pull my shirt down and zip my jacket back up. I get up and head downstairs to find Lourdes. I find her not in the kitchen but in a sitting room on a couch with the head on a young sleeping kid in her lap. Lourdes herself looks asleep too. I sigh, not wanting to wake her up, but knowing that I have to since I don't want to lose any more blood. I step forward to wake her up, but a sudden pain shoots up from my wound and I bend over in pain. I hear the sound of quick footsteps behind me and feel someone's arms on mine.

"Hey, hey," Hal says, "You ok?"

"No, not really," I say and he guides me over to the nearest chair in the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" he asks kneeling in front of me. I unzip my jacket and put my hand to my wound. I pull it back to show him the blood on it. I hear his sharp intake of breath.

"I came down her to get Lourdes. When I moved to wake her up, well you saw what happened," I say quickly since every breath I take starts to hurt.

"Ok, you stay put. I'm going to go get some supplies," he says and practically runs up the stairs. I do as I'm told and don't move. I lean my head against the chair and wait for him to come back. I hear his footsteps and look at the stairs as he comes down them. He's carrying a backpack which he puts on the floor at the foot of my chair. He zips it open and rifles through until he finds what he's looking for. A pair of gloves, a needle, some thread, a zip lock baggy, some gauze, a pair of scissors and some tape.

"Take off your jacket," he orders and I do as he puts the gloves on. I throw my jacket onto the floor and he lifts my bloody shirt up. He carefully peels away the blood soaked gauze and throws it into the zip lock bag. He next cuts the loose stitches and after a slightly painfully pulling as he gets them out, puts them into the zip lock baggy too. Next he cuts some thread and threads it through the needle. He moves to start stitching, but hesitates.

"You know, I've only ever done this once. Should I get Lourdes?" he asks looking me straight in the eye.

"I trust you," I say, looking straight back.

"Ok then," he says and breaths deeply once before getting to work. I flinch when the needle goes through my skin.

"Sorry," he mumbles.

"It's ok," I say. "So you said that you've done this before?"

"Oh, yeah. Before Lourdes came to the Second, I once had to assist Anne. I was on guard duty when a patrol came back with two civilians. One of the civilians was pretty messed up in his leg. We took him to Anne and she somehow got me to help her. When we finally got a good look at the wound, I almost threw up it was such a mess. Somehow I made it through that, but…" he trails off sighing sadly.

"But what?" I say gently.

"But he didn't make it. The wound got infected and with no antibiotics…" he trails off again.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"It's ok. Anne says he died in his sleep with a little bit of morphine in him. It was painless," he says. I nod in response, not knowing what to say next.

A few moments later I figure out what to say though. "So what happened to the other person? You said there were two civilians."

"She was fine, well physically anyway. She and the man were married. Mr. and Mrs. Philips. She wouldn't talk to anyone for a while, she just worked and worked. It got to the point that we had to force her to eat and sleep," Hal says.

"And now?" I ask.

"She's better now, but once you lose someone you love, you never really get over it," he tells me almost in a whisper. His eyes are clouded over, like he's flashing back to something- or rather someone.

"And who did you lose?" I ask in a whisper. He looks up at my face, and then back down again.

"My mother. Her name was Rebecca, Rebecca Mason. She was killed before we found the Second Mass and before Ben was taken," he remembers and I swear I see tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I know what it's like to lose a parent," I say.

"There, all done," he says cutting the extra thread. He tapes some gauze over it to protect the stitches from getting caught and peels off his gloves, also pacing them into the zip lock bag. I pull my shirt down as he throws the zip lock bag into the trash can and zips up the backpack. He gets up, putting the backpack on his back and offers me his hand. I gratefully take it as he hands me my jacket and we walk upstairs to get some sleep.


	21. Chapter 21

After breakfast the next morning, Tessa challenges the Second Mass to a game of soccer. I, of course can't play, but I do my best to cheer the Second on from the sidelines.

About halfway through the game, Jimmy gets the ball, but it's stolen from him just as he's about to try and score. The ball's taken down the field, almost to our goal when Hal gets it and gives it to Jimmy. I smile, that's just like Hal. Instead of taking it for himself, he gives it away to someone else. Jimmy swerves around some opponents, but they're following close on his heels. I see Ben waving his arms and saying he's open. I frown when I see that Jimmy sees this too, but chooses to ignore him. Jimmy runs past him, but has the ball stolen from him by Tessa. If he would've passed the ball to Ben, that probably wouldn't have happened and we might've scored.

I've noticed lately that Jimmy avoids not just Ben, but all the de-harnessed kids. I frown even more, not liking at how prejudice he's become.

Tessa runs down the field and they score…again. Sanctuary: eight. Second Mass: zero. Lourdes runs after the ball and Ben approaches Hal, Matt and Jimmy. I see Jimmy back away from Ben as he looks at Ben's spikes. He starts to walk back to midfield and Ben comes up beside him. I see Ben say something and point, but Jimmy shrugs it off. Ben's face drops slightly and he stands still. I see Ben look to his left and I follow what he's looking at. It's Clayton and the other fighters that escorted us here. They talk for a minute and then leave down the path to the road. I take this time to stand up and call Jimmy over. He reluctantly runs over.

"We were just about to start the play," he says, breathless and slightly agitated.

"I saw what you did with Ben; how you treated him differently," I say glaring at him. He doesn't say anything, but looks at his feet since he knows that I'm upset with him.

"What do you want me to say?" he asks.

"Two words; I'm sorry, but not to me; to Ben and then start treating him for what he is. A victim from the skitters," I say and he nods.

"I'm disappointed in you. I thought that you would be one of the most understanding, considering what we are, how we're different as well," I whisper so I can be sure that no one else can hear. There's no one even close, but it's good to be extra careful. He nods again and whispers that he's sorry.

"Good, but it's not me you should be apologizing to. But for right now let's beat these guys," I say.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to play?" he says as we walk out into the field.

"Yeah, I'll just play goalie," I say since it doesn't involve running. I jog/ walk over to the goal and switch with Lourdes, who doesn't object since she knows she's not very good at it. I see Hal give me a look and I mouth, "I'll be fine." I know my limits and when it's time for me to stop, I'll stop. I manage to block the next two balls, but the third one just slips past my fingers and goes through the goal. I feel the throbbing from my wound get more intense and I know that I have to stop. Trying to block that last one really hurt it. As everyone is going back to midfield I walk up to Hal.

"Ok, your turn to be goalie," I say, clutching my stomach. He gives me a worried look.

"Don't worry; I didn't push myself too far. That's why I'm stopping now," I say.

"Ok, just take it easy," he says and runs in the opposite direction to the goal. I sit back down where I was before and watch the rest of the game play out. Jimmy actually passes the ball to Ben now but I can see that he's still reluctant to do so. I sigh; I can't change his mind, only he can do that and it'll take some time. Jimmy's stubborn when he wants to be, but I know he'll come around.

After lunch I decide to go for a walk. I walk around the house, passing guards and eventually coming across the barn. I walk past the door, but something on the ground glints in the sun. I bend down to pick it up and find it's a silver lock. It must have been in the door, but why would someone open it, drop it on the ground and then not bother to relock it. I pocket the lock and, since I can't help my curiosity, I go into the barn. I close the door behind me and walk up the stairs. I come to an open room that was probably once used for storage. I scan the room and to my right find a man lying unconscious on the ground. I hurry over to him and take his pulse. It's strong. I turn his head to see who he is and find its Tessa's father. Ok, this is strange. Then I see something else. A cord of rope laying out on the ground a few meters away. I see two imprints on the ground in front of the rope. It doesn't look like the imprint any type of shoes make though. I kneel next to them. They're rather deep, so it was probably a man and he was probably bound with the rope. That's when I see the imprints next to my knees and it connects. The imprints were from a man kneeling with his hands tied. That's when I hear footsteps upstairs and for some reason, I have the urge to run. I don't know why I do, but I've always been told to trust your instincts, so I run. Back down the stairs and through the door. That's when I see a figure running away from the farm at a sprint. I follow the person, thinking it must be the man that was captured, and probably for good reason. I sprint, even though my side protests, and when the person slows down, so do I, hiding behind some bush. I slip the hair band off my wrist and quickly pull up my hair so it's out of my eyes. He's (he really is a he) reaches up and grabs an apple off a tree and I decide to make my move. I grab the small knife from my ankle and stealthy creep out of the trees, but I step on a twig. He turns and puts his gun on me. I put my hands up and am surprised by who it is.

"Pope?" I say.

"Yeah Princess, I'm back," he says lowering his gun, and I recognize that last bit he said from a movie.

"Don't call me princess," I say. That's when I see something on the ground behind him. I point behind him. He turns around and sees the two bodies of our fighter escort. He kneels next to them, looking at their wounds.

"Well it looks like these two won't be getting back to the Second Mass anytime soon," he says.

"It was Clayton wasn't it?" I ask. He looks at me surprised.

"Very good, princess. How'd you know?" he asks.

"Don't call me princess. And something had been bugging me ever since Clayton proposes his offer to the Second. Why would you take all the children here, but not the rest of the civilians? I mean people like Sarah and Uncle Scott, people that can't fight. Wouldn't it have made more sense to let all of the civilians go ahead and keep the fighters there to wait for the Third," I say.

"Sorry princess, I've sort of been out of the loop for a while. Want to run that by me again?" he says.

"Yeah, but not here," I say, looking at the bodies. He stands up.

"Civilization, you've got to love it," he says sarcastically. I pretend not to hear him (just like he ignored me when I asked him to not call me princess) and follow him deeper into the woods, filling him in on what happened after Clayton arrived. He's silent for a second before he says something, but not the thing I want to hear.

"You know you should probably be getting back before someone notices you're gone," he says.

"That's it? I know that you know what's really going on, tell me," I say.

"Well since you asked so nicely, Clayton made a deal with the skitters. He gives them kids, they leave him alone," he says. "Now you better go on back to warn everybody."

"And you?" I say. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, move on," he says.

"You know, it could be of some help having an extra gun. Especially one that Clayton won't expect to be there," I hint to him. He stops and turns to face me.

"And why would I do that? Why should I risk my life for a bunch of kids?" he asks.

"Let me put it another way. The men that tied you up, beat you and tried to kill you. You'd be able to get revenge on them. How about that?" I ask. He thinks for a minute.

"I like your style princess," he says. "Fine I'll do it. You go warn them and I'll catch up with you later, once you've left." He turns and starts walking.

I hear him shout over his shoulder though, "You better hurry, it's a fifteen minute walk back."

I look at my watch and realize I've been gone for thirty minutes.

"Shit," I murmur and take off running. It'd be better not to give Clayton any reason to be suspicious.


	22. Chapter 22

I run back to the Sanctuary and find the barn (or stables, or whatever they are). I walk back along the path to the main house, being extra careful to make sure that no one's coming this way. When I break through the forest to the open area of the Sanctuary I notice the guards posted all around. It's around dinner time, so some of the guards won't be here, but most are. I freeze the first guard and slip past him, hugging the house as I move toward the door. I notice another guard on a balcony above that will see me if I try to get inside. I try freezing him, but I don't have a clear view (I can't freeze something if I can't see it). I edge a little away from the wall to get a better look, my heart pounding since I know that the more I move away, the more likely of a chance he'll see me before I can freeze him. I try again and this time it works. I walk inside the building and am walking towards the stairs to go downstairs to the dining room when Clayton walks down the stairs.

"Ah, there you are. Everyone's been worried. Where've you been?" he says, sounding genuinely concerned, but he was probably just worried that he had lost one of his precious trading items.

"Nowhere, just for a walk," I say trying to brush it off.

"You should've taken one of my men with you. You of all people should know how dangerous it can get out there," he says, edging closer and I step back. I notice his hands are behind his back, but I can't see what he has.

"I think I can protect myself," I say.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that, even without a gun you can protect yourself remarkably well. Isn't that right, witch?" he says, slamming something down on the table. I visibly stiffen when I see that it's the Book.

"I always knew that there was something different about you. How easily you accepted the de-harnessed kids; and how you snuck off. What did you go to practice your "powers"?" he sneers. He keeps edging closer, so I keep backing away. We end up circling around the table.

"Actually its ability, we don't like the word "power" and I only have one ability, if you had actually read the Book you'd know that and you'd also know that we're not witches," I counter, slowly moving toward the door, hopefully to make a run for it.

"Yes, well, I should've known, after all your family kept good records in that book of yours. There's a page in there about you. I know everything, most importantly how you… activate your power and how to stop it," he says. I stop, having a feeling that he's going to try to stop me before I can freeze him. I raise my hands to try and freeze Clayton, but at the same time someone grab my hands, pulling them behind my back. I feel someone tying my hands together and I don't just mean just my wrists, but I mean every finger. I can't use my ability. Clayton walks right in front of me.

"The skitters warned us about your… kind. Based on what they said I bet I could probably trade you for a few weeks of immunity," he says. I don't even blink when he says this and he isn't really surprised that I know about the deal.

"Do you really think that you'll get away with this "skitter deal"? How stupid do you think the Second Mass is?" I ask.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised that you figured it out. But on the subject of whether or not I think the Second Mass is stupid or not, considering I tricked all of you into giving up your kids, I think that you're pretty stupid," he says grinning.

He looks at the two men behind me. "Put her in the stables and put a guard outside the door. And make sure you clean up that glass, we don't need a repeat of Pope," he orders.

He turns to leave, but turns back remembering something.

"Oh and if she tries to escape, kill her," he says.

"What?! Clayton, you can't do this, you won't get away with it!" I say, my voice getting louder.

"Hal! Jimm-" I shout for help, but find Clayton hitting the side of my face with my precious hardcover book. I'm knocked to the ground, but before I pass out I notice three things. One, the feeling of warm blood running down my face from where the Book hit me. Two, my battered book hit the floor beside me and I reach out and grab it. And three, I hear Clayton say, "Take her and keep the book. We might need proof that she is a… whatever they're called… for the skitters."


	23. Chapter 23

I wake up laying on something cold. Oh, it's the ground. I struggle to sit up because my hands are still tied behind my back. When I finally get up I find myself in the same place Pope was held in. I can't see very well with barely any light shining through the cracks in the barn's walls, so it's probably night time. Who knows how much time I've been asleep for? But that's good since it'll give me more cover after I figure out how to get out of here. I stand up, which takes me a minute to figure out how, and search for something to cut the ropes binding my hands together. As long as I can untie my fingers, I can use my ability. I don't see anything, so I try to untie the knots with my hands. After a second or two I find that's impossible so I begin my search again for something to cut them with. I walk over to the other side of the room, but I find it hard to walk with my hands tied behind my back. Not to mention my shoulders are aching from it. I stop and bend over and step through my hands backwards so my hands end up in front of me. I swear I can hear my shoulders sigh in relief. I go back to looking again for a sharp object. I look for probably ten minutes before I see it. It's a pipe that's half buried in dirt and hay. It has a sharp edge where it's been chipped. I work on getting my fingers free first, just in case I need to use my power and I can do that with my wrists still tied. I get all my fingers free and am about to start working on my wrists when I hear the door open from below. I think fast, I hurry up the stairs and am amazed at my luck that they don't creak. I slip through the door and close it quietly behind me. I don't hear anyone follow me so I know that I won't be followed. I go to the other door that leads outside and open it a crack, remembering how Clayton said he'd be posting a guard. I see the guard and stick my hands out of the door and freeze him. I hurry through the door and start running, not knowing when the freeze will wear off. I make it to the forest, but then realize that I came out of the wrong side of the building and have no idea where I am except for the general direction of the barn. It takes me a few minutes to get going the right way and then a few more before I reach the edge of the tree line. I loop back around, sticking just inside the tree line to avoid being seen. I keep my eyes on the barn until I have gone around the entire building and find the path back to the house. That's when I see Clayton come out of the barn and he looks angry, very angry. I hear him yell something at my "guard" and they argue for a while. Then they start to come my way, probably to get back to the house. I hid behind a tree and wait for them to pass. I manage to catch what Clayton says as they walk past.

"You get back to that house and tell the men to gear up; we're going on a witch hunt. And tell them that they are authorized to use lethal force if necessary," Clayton orders and my "guard" starts running towards the house. I make sure not to move a muscle, or breathe while Clayton walks by. His senses are sharp, if he hears even one noise he could hide and wait for me to come out and then shoot me. He walks right on by, but I wait a minute before following, just to make sure. I come out from my hiding place and start walking back to the house. As I near the house I hear shouting; a girl's voice. I see many small figures run out of the house and make a break for the forest. Well I told Clayton that they would figure it out. Then I see all of Clayton's men come running out after them. I'm too far away to freeze them and I don't have a gun, so I decide to follow the kids and keep them safe. I follow the tree line so I don't get seen and shot and make my way there. I hear shouting; Mike and Tessa's dad. When I get to the place that the kids disappeared into the forest in, I start to run after them when everything goes silent. I stop and turn slowly, hoping that I don't find what I think I'll see, but I do. It's Mike hiding behind the truck with Clayton pointing his gun at him. They say a few words and then a single shot and Mike slumps over onto the ground. I don't scream, or make a sound, I just stand there. Then I do the only thing I can do: run.

I don't think about where I'm going; I just know I have to get away. I don't know how long I've been running, but eventually I run into the middle of a road. I stop; only now realize that I've been crying. I look both ways trying to find out where I am before I realize how exposed I am. I cross the road and start looking at every house, trying to find one clue that Jimmy and Hal are hiding there with everyone else. I look for the next block before I realize that my hands are still tied. I start towards a house (kitchens have knives that I can cut my hands free with) when I hear voices in front of me. They're defiantly men's voices, but I can't tell if they belong to Clayton's men or not. But running into strangers can sometimes be even more dangerous than a skitter; trust me, I learned my lesson. It's better if they didn't see me tough, no matter who they are, so I run into the closest house. I hide right inside the door. I hear footsteps as they pass by outside, but no more voices. I turn to get a look at them out of the window in the top of the door. It's defiantly Clayton. They walk down the rest of the block and turn right and disappear from my view.

I take a deep breath and everything that's happened just hits me. I sink to the floor as thoughts rush through my head; Marie, Clayton's betrayal, Mike's death. Mike dying was my snapping point. I can't stop all the thoughts and feelings as they bounce around. At the same time I know I need this. I've kept things so bottled up ever since Marie, probably since before that. I start crying again, but I don't care anymore about pretending to be strong. I sit there and let the tears run down my cheeks. But soon the tears run dry and I've left there numb. I don't want to get up, but I know I have to. I stand, a little wobbly. It's probably from the blow to the head I took when Clayton hit me with the Book. Shit, the Book. I completely forgot about it, where was it? It's probably still in the house since I didn't see it in the barn and I looked over that place pretty good. I can't go back though, not without back up, so I decide to turn my attention to my head since I find that it rather hurts now that all the adrenaline has worn off. My hands are still bound, but the pain in my head hurts a lot. I take a few steps and limp because my side is also hurting, probably from all the running. I walk down the hall and find a bathroom to the right. I check the cupboard over the sink for something that might help. Many survivors look in hospitals or stores for supplies, but you'd be amazed at what you can find in the houses. I search and find some Ibuprofen, but that's about it. I take two and put the bottle in my jacket pocket for later. I shut the cupboard and am about to go to the kitchen for a knife to cut my wrists free when I notice something on the floor. It's a drop of red on the white tile floor. I think its blood. I look in the mirror at my head injury, but the little amount of blood that's there is dry. Then I look at my other wound and see that blood has bleed through the dressing… again. There's nothing to help me in the cabinet though, so I look under the sink. I find some washcloths and take two. I put them on the counter (sink) and slowly peel off the bloody gauze. I put that on the counter and take a washcloth. I put it to my wound and hiss when it touches it. After I clear some blood away, I can see clearly that the stitches are very loose again. Using my elbow to hold the washcloth, I peel the tape off the gauze. Then I tape the washcloth over my wound. I take the other washcloth and stuff it in my pocket. That's when I hear the front door thrown open. I quickly look out of the door, but at the same time trying to remain covered. I see that there are many men quickly filing in through the door, weapons raised. I curse silently and step back into the bathroom. I think quickly since I only have seconds, there's nowhere to hide and only one place to run; out that door, where they'll see me trying to escape. I don't think my side can take much more running, but it's my only option. I take a deep breath and bolt out the door. I take a sharp right, remembering the back door down the hall. I hear a man shout for me to stop, but of course I don't, it's probably Clayton. I veer around the dining table and out through the door. I run as fast as I can through the yard and feel the bullets whizzing by me. By the time in reach the neighbor's yard I hear another man shout to let me go and the bullets stop coming. So, I guess it's not Clayton. I hear some protests from another person, but they're quickly silenced. After I hear that I'm so far away I can't hear them anymore. After I put some space between me and them, I stop, leaning against a tree in a side yard to catch my breath. After the adrenaline goes away, my side starts hurting again, even more than before. After a minute, I decide to start walking. It's a long way back to the school. But I only get a few steps before I see a large group of men come out from behind a house to my left. It's Clayton. Damn, can't I just catch one little break today. I guess not. I run to the nearest house on my right and go inside, locking the door behind me. I turn with the intention of finding somewhere to hide, but come to the sight of Hal holding a gun on me. Automatically my hands go up, but he lowers his weapon when he sees it's me.

"Laura," he says surprised.

"Hal, oh thank god," I say so relieved. I go and hug him a little awkwardly since my hands are still tied, but I hug him all the same. After the hug he takes out a knife and starts cutting at the rope.

"What happened?" he asks.

"I found out about Clayton's skitter deal and was coming to warn you guys, but somehow Clayton figured out I knew and got to me first. I escaped when you did," I say, half lying as he finally cuts all the way through the rope on my wrists.

"Hal… Mike's dead. I saw Clayton kill him," I whisper so the others won't hear.

"I had guessed he was," Hal murmurs sadly.

I'm about to tell him the rest when Jimmy envelops me in a hug. I didn't even see him come up behind Hal.

"Jimmy," I say relieved that he's ok. I hug him back tightly, even though my side protests. Then I release him suddenly remembering how Clayton is like, right outside.

"Hal, I saw Clayton, that's why I got in here so quick. He's right out front," I say hurriedly.

"Lourdes, go get the kids up and ready to move out the back," Hal practically orders and she runs towards the stairs.

"Children!" I hear Clayton's voice from out front.

"To late," I say.


	24. Chapter 24

"Good morning," I hear a man shout from outside.

"To late," I whisper just loud enough for Hal to hear. He walks over to peer out the window and I'm right behind him. Clayton's in the driveway with a huge group of fighters. All armed. Here's no way we're going to be able to get out of this with a direct attack. Exchanging a glance with Hal tells me he knows this too. Hal signals for everyone to get down and out of this front room and away from the windows. Jimmy backs up with Lourdes and takes cover in the doorway.

"You too, you're not armed," Hal says to me.

"No way," I protest. He gives me a look to start to argue but I say something first.

"I'm not leaving you," I say. I think I see something like surprise in his eyes and then it's replaced by… relief? Happiness? I hope so. Wait, where did that last thought come from?

I follow Hal into the front room with Lourdes and Jimmy crouching down behind the couch.

"Don't make me come in there Hal. No one wants anyone to get hurt," Clayton shouts.

"Yeah right," I mutter under my breath as I stand next to Hal. He opens the front door cautiously and peers outside of it.

"We know about your deal," Hal shouts.

"Yeah, well there's a term in war; acceptable losses. If one of your friends gets hurt or killed, I can live with that. Can you?" Clayton yells back. I see Hal's body go rigid for just a second.

"Go to hell!" Hals shouts and fires at them. They all scatter for cover. Hal moves back and I get out of his way and follow him, sitting to his right on the floor beneath a window.

"What are we going to do now?" Lourdes whispers to us. She's right though; now that we've started firing there's no way to talk our way out of this and they're probably surrounding the house right now. No escape. Except for one way, but I can tell that I'm not close enough to freeze them all.

"I'm going to try to hold them off, you take them out the back," he says to Lourdes. She nods and runs towards the back of the house. I follow though, just in case my suspicions are correct. Lourdes is about to walk out the door to make sure it's clear when I put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. I walk in front of her and slowly creep out the door. There's a shot that embeds itself in the wood right next to my head. I push Lourdes back into the house and shut and lock the door. I make my way back out front to Hal and sit back down next to him.

"The back door is covered, we can't get out that way," I inform him. He cusses under his breath. My breath hitches when I realize that his thigh is touching mine. Not the time or the place Laura and I mentally slap myself. Everything's quiet for a second and then I hear a gun go off. A single shot and I know what that usually means; a kill shot. I instinctively raise my hands and the bullet that was soaring towards Hal's head freezes just inches away from his face. And I know he sees it too. He appears to be frozen as well, but I know he's not. I quickly reach out and grab the bullet, dropping it on the ground.

"Did you-" Hal starts to ask, but doesn't finish because another shot rings out. He instinctively ducks, thinking it's another bullet meant for him. He leans across me, shielding me with his own body. When we realize nothing happened we sit back up confused. We look out the window and see one of Clayton's men lying face down on the ground dead.

There's another shot before someone screams, "Get your damn head down kid!"

There's another shot before the man speaks again.

"Hey Clayton, how's that skitter deal working now, huh?" he yells and I recognize the voice as belonging to Pope. Clayton and everyone else start firing at Pope and Pope keeps firing right on back. But I hear a cry of pain and Pope's gun stops firing.

"Give it up Pope!" Clayton yells. Pope fires off another shot, but I know he's injured. Then there's a short silence for which appears to be a standoff.

"Hold your fire, Pope's dead!" I hear yet another man yell.

"Clayton its Tom Mason, I'm coming out," Tom says and I can see a little speck in the distance coming out from the woods.

"Its dad," Matt says and starts to move forward. Lourdes grabs his arms, pulling his back. Hal waves for them to stay back and we watch everything as it unfolds.

Tom gets closer and Clayton says, "We're not taking any prisoners Mason."

"You might want to think about that," Tom retorts,

"Yeah?" Clayton asks.

"Everything you told us was a lie. I know you haven't talked to Porter; because I have and he's on his way," Tom says getting close enough the Clayton's group that he stops.

"And you're gonna what? Offer yourself up as a hostage, that it? Why?" Clayton asks.

"I don't want them to get hurt," Tom declares. Clayton exchanges a few words with one of his men and then Tom steps forward to give his weapon to Tessa's dad and then steps in full view of the house.

"Hal, Matt come on out, it's all over. Everybody come on out," Tom shouts. Hal turns away from the window and I can see that he's mad, really mad. I put my hand on his knee to calm him.

"I'm not seeing another option," I say and he nods.

"I know," he says. He looks at Matt and that seems to calm him down a little bit. He stands up, offering me a hand since it's hard for me to get up while my side hurts from all the walking. He guides everyone to the front door and opens it, walking out first with his gun held above his head. I'm right behind him with Jimmy, followed by Lourdes and Matt. A guy comes and takes Hal's weapon and Matt rushes out to Tom.

"Dad!" he exclaims so surprised. Tom hugs him briefly before putting his hands back up above his head.

"Dad, what you'd do?" Hal asks with his hands up as well. I figure I better put my hands above my head too.

"You would've kept fighting and they would've killed you. I'm not gonna let that happen," Tom says and he's sort of right, sort of wrong in my opinion because of my freezing ability.

"But going back is just as bad," Hal protests.

"The first rule of combat is survive," Tom says in a tone that effectively ends all conversation. Clayton's men surround us and Clayton steps forward with a bundle of rope and is looking at me. So in the few seconds I have left to be able to use my ability I think fast.

Ok, so, Pope's dead and we're being taken to the skitters. So when Tom asked us to come out of the house why did he only call Hal and Matt's names? Ben was with us but if Tom already knew that Ben wasn't with us that that could mean two things. One, that Tom met up with Ben and sent him back to the Second Mass for reinforcements or two, that Ben was with Tom and is watching all of this from close by, which means he should be leaving now for reinforcements. Either way we get help, but I know something I can do for help; with these idiots still armed, they could still do some damage before the Second Mass can take them all down. So I freeze everyone, except for Jimmy. Even if I wanted to I can't freeze Jimmy because my ability doesn't affect my "kind". When everyone stops moving Jimmy just says, "Cool". I chuckle but soon turn serious, explaining my idea.

We go to every one of Clayton's men, take out each magazine in their guns and take the bullets out, tossing them into the grass. Then we put the empty magazine back in. We do this with every gun, their side arms included. I'm on Clayton's last mag when I feel it; the tugging in the back of my mind that tells me that the freeze is about to wear off.

"Jimmy get back to wear you were," I say and he hears the urgency in my voice and runs back to the where he was. But I stay where I am finishing up.

"Laura, come on," Jimmy urges and the tugging gets stronger, but I force the freeze to last longer by really concentrating on it. I take the mag out, take the bullets into my hand and then shove the empty mag back in. I run back to my spot, shoving the bullets into my pocket. Then everything unfreezes.

Clayton starts walking forward to me again as he unties the rope. He stops in front of me and gives me a glare. I sigh in frustration because I really don't like being powerless, but I put my hands together out in front of me. He starts to tie them together like they were before.

"Clayton you've captured us, you don't have-" Tom starts to say but Clayton stops him.

"Oh I do Tom because out of everyone here, she's defiantly the most dangerous," he says and I flinch, briefly closing my eyes. Clayton sees this and looks at the confusion on Tom's face.

"Oh, you haven't told them. Great now we'll have something to talk about when we get home," Clayton says. I open my eyes and glare at him. Then he moves to Jimmy with another piece of rope. I quickly move in between Jimmy and Clayton.

"He's only twelve and if you know anything then you'll know why you don't have to tie his hands too," I say glaring at his face and if looks could kill, he would have been dead like ten minutes ago.

"Fine, but if you're lying to me I won't hesitate to put a bullet in you," he threatens.

"Oh I think you've tried that a few times already, but for some reason I guess you are just naturally a failure," I say just loud enough for him to hear and as soon as the words come out of my mouth I knew that I shouldn't have said them. The back of his hand connects with my left cheek and I stumble to my right, right into Hal who catches me before I can fall. I'm a little dazed so I'm glad that Hal doesn't let me go right away. Instead he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

"Clayton there's no need for that," Tom yells, moving in front of him. Clayton looks at me one more time before turning.

"Let's move out," he shouts and we start walking, surrounded by Clayton's soldiers.


	25. Chapter 25

When we reach the Sanctuary Tom is ahead of the group and my breathing is starting to get hard and the pain in my side increases. Hal must've heard this because his arm around my shoulder tightens. I just him a slightly pain filled smile which he returns.

"Some night; we took a big hit for this one," Tessa's father comments.

"It was worth it," Clayton answers and I'm disgusted at how they can talk about kids like cattle. We walk right outside the building when Clayton orders to get all the kids into the stable. Matt, whose hand Hal is holding, gets grabbed by one of Clayton's men and pushed away from him. Thankfully Lourdes intervenes and places an arm around his shoulder walking towards the stables. Matt keeps looking back at me, Tom and Hal who aren't allowed to go with everyone else to the stable.

"No, I'm not going. Dad!" Matt screams. Tom takes a step forward towards Matt, but has a gun pointed on him. Then there's a single shot that rings out and the guy holding a gun on Tom falls dead.

"Drop em'," Weaver shouts as he comes out of the house with Dai and a whole lot of fighters. Another one of Clayton's tries to take out Weaver, but Weaver's faster and takes him out first. Then I'm being dragged away by my arm and turn to see Clayton pointing his gun on me and using me as a shield. Hal tries to pull me away, but Clayton puts his weapon on him and pulls me farther away from everyone. I struggle trying to escape from his grasp, but this just causes him to wrap his arm around my waist and pull. He knows that I have a wound there and I hiss in pain.

"Don't move or I'll put a bullet in her head," Clayton warns and everybody's still.

"Clayton, we can all still walk away from this," Tom tries to negotiate. Clayton ignores him and starts creeping backwards dragging me with him. He keeps his arm around my wound so I don't struggle.

"Oh, yeah and tell me how that ends; with us as your prisoners? I don't think so," Clayton says, still moving backwards.

"Clayton its over," says Tessa's dad who has already laid his weapon down.

Clayton ignores him and I know it's time for me to step in.

"You know Clayton, that guns not loaded," I say loudly enough for everyone to hear, "None of the guns are."

My hands might be tied but I can still move my fingers a little, so I reach into my pocket and grab a few bullets.

"Of course they are," he says.

"Are you sure about that?" I say and put my hand out flat and let the bullets drop. Then he does something that I didn't expect him to do. He pulls the trigger, but of course nothing happens. He pulls it twice more and I feel his arm go stiff with the realization that he's not getting out of this. He sighs and his arm loosens on my waist. I elbow him in the face and he stumbles back. I calmly step away from him but I only get about two steps before the pain in my side becomes too much. I start to double over and feel myself sinking to my knees when a familiar pair of arms catches me, again. He helps me stand and when I start to wobble he puts one hand one my shoulder and the other on my waist to steady me. When he takes his hand off my waist we see a spot of blood on it. He looks at it for a second before wrapping my arm around his neck and helps me walk over to the house. He sits me down on the spiral steps and kneels in front of me. He knows that my side started bleeding again from the wound that he had re-stitched just the previous night. He takes out his knife and cuts the ropes off my hands, again. He puts the knife away and looks back at my side.

"Can I?" Hal asks, pointing to my shirt and I nod. He lifts my shirt up and briefly grimaces.

"I'll go get Lourdes," he says and leaves me with Jimmy who has been standing behind Hal. Jimmy sits down beside me and I lean into him. While we wait I watch Ben who's getting high fives and thanks from all the other kids, even the ones that were prejudge against him before.

"I'll be right back," Jimmy murmurs before he gets up and walks over to Ben. He gives him a high five and they talk a little. I smile, knowing maybe that he'll be nicer towards Ben.

Then Lourdes, closely followed by Hal, Tom and Weaver, comes and kneels down in front of me. She takes a look at my wound.

"Hal, could you go get my backpack?" she asks, not looking at him, but keeping her eyes fixed on my side. He nods, even though she doesn't see it and goes inside the house.

"Tom, could you help me get her somewhere more comfortable?" Lourdes asks and Tom steps forward and I take his hand to help stand. Tom assists me inside and I sit on the couch. Weaver follows us, standing off to the side. Hal comes back from upstairs, carrying Lourdes backpack along with his own on his back. He hands it to Lourdes and sits on the couch's sidearm.

"She gonna be ready to move soon?" Weaver asks.

"She should be. I just have to redo her stitches, fix her cheek and head and then give her something for the pain," Lourdes answers. Weaver nods and leaves.

"Hal can I talk to you?" Tom says pointing outside. Hal nods and follows him, giving me a worried parting glance.

Once Lourdes finished the stitches and practically forced some painkillers down my throat she declared I was ready to move. People had long since come and gone and Jimmy got me my backpack, which is now sitting at my feet. I grab the backpack and go through it. The Book isn't in here and then I remember that the last place it remember it is in the living room by the kitchen. Lourdes packs up her backpack and goes out front. I take this chance to go upstairs and try and find it. I look everywhere and can't find it.

"Shit," I curse under my breath because I know Weaver wants to move like now and I won't be able to come back for it.

"You looking for this?" someone says and I whirl around to see Tom holding the Book. I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything.

"I'll take that as a yes," he says putting it on the table.

"It's an interesting read. But it would explain some things," he says.

"Like what?" I ask.

"Like the arrow that stopped mid flight and the fact that Clayton thinks that you're the most dangerous of everyone," he lists. Once again I don't know how to respond.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I didn't even understand what half of that stuff in there means, but Clayton seemed afraid of you. So I just have to be sure if I should. I need an explanation, sooner or later. Now you've done nothing but help the Second Mass so far, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll wait until you're ready to explain things, but I won't wait forever," Tom says and looks at me, trying to read my expression. I guess he was hoping I'd say something, but when I don't, he sighs and walks away. I walk to the table and pick up the Book.

"Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into?" I ask no one.

I put the Book into my backpack and put it on and go outside. Everyone is talking and ready to go. I see two fighters carrying a stretcher with a cloth laying over it. That must be Mike's body. I feel an over whelming sadness spread through me, knowing that I was right there and did nothing to try and stop it. When Weaver sees me he shouts for us to move out and I snap out of my daze. Jimmy comes to my side and I take his hand. We walk in silence for the first quarter of the trip before Weaver says that we'll be taking a five minute break. I can see Jimmy wanting to go hang out with his friends.

"Go," I say.

"Are you sure, because I don't mind-" he halfheartedly protests, but I cut him off.

"GO," I say louder. He smiles at me and walks off. I sigh and am about to try and reach for my water bottle when someone else takes it from its side pocket and hands it to me. It's Hal and I gladly accept it. I take a drink and say thanks.

"No problem," he says and then he steps closer and whispers, "So are you ever going to tell me how you pulled off that magic act and made that bullet stop in mid-air?" he asks.

"Yes, but not here," I say.

"Ok, fine. But I am a little curious about how you found us in that house, you know before Clayton came," he asks.

"Well I didn't really, it was just luck. I saw Clayton on the street, so I ran into the nearest house," I say.

"When you found us though, you already knew that Clayton had made the deal with the skitters; how?" he pushes.

"Well, let me just tell you from the beginning," I say and I tell him everything from when I found Pope to when I found Hal and everyone else.

"And what about when you said the guns weren't loaded, how did you know? How did that even happen?" he asks.

"More as you put it 'magic act' which will also be explained later," I answer.

There's a moment of silence when I finish my story before Hal changes the subject.

"Earlier when we went out to get the drugs to de-harness Ben, you said you were in your second year of college studying psychology," he says.

"Yeah, what about it?" I ask.

"So you were away from your family when the attack happened?" he asks.

"No, I was going to a community college while working a job to save up money to go to a university. I still lived at home," I say, "I guess I got lucky, I was supposed to go to my first class the day after _they_ came. I'm lucky I guess because if they had attacked a day later I wouldn't have been with my family," I explain. The mood gets really serious and there's a moment of silence.

"And what about you, did you want to go to college?" I ask hoping to lighten the mood.

"Me, oh, I don't know. I guess. I knew that my dad wanted me to, but I didn't even know what I wanted to be yet," he says.

"Oh, come on, every kid has a dream of what they want to be," I say, nudging him with my arm. "You said you played lacrosse, ever dream of going pro?"

"Yeah, once, but it was more about having fun and having something to do when school, or my job for later on, would get to stressing. I've sort of been out of practice since the attack," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, maybe you can teach me. Start getting some practice in," I say with a smile.

"Maybe," he says returning the smile.

"Alright, break over. Let's go!" Weaver yells and everybody packs up and starts moving. I see that Jimmy's still with his friends, or should I say friend, since he just talking to one other kid. I smile when I see its Ben.

"Look at that," I say, nudging Hal with my arm and pointing at Jimmy and Ben.

"Yesterday they couldn't stand to be in the same room and now they're acting like best friends," I say.

"That's good; Ben needs a friend that isn't in his family," Hal says.

"So did Jimmy. Although I saw him talking to Lourdes earlier; you don't think that there's anything going on between them do you?" I ask, half joking, half not.

"No I don't think so, Lourdes has a crush on me," he says blushing at the fact a little.

"It's not a bad thing to have admirers. Plus you defiantly have the looks," I say.

"Oh, so are you one of my admirers?" he jokes.

"Maybe. Are you one of mine?" I joke back.

"Um, let me think about that for a minute and get back to you," he laughs. I elbow him in the ribs, but laugh with him.

Just then Pope comes stumbling out of the bushes right in front of our group. All the fighters raise their weapons but Tom intervenes.

"Wait, wait, he's on our side," he says, walking to Pope's side. Pope's leg is bleeding, so I guess he did get shot, just not fatally like Tom told Clayton.

"Tom, what is the meaning of this?" Weaver demands, not ordering his men to lower their weapons.

"He was trying to help our kids get away from Clayton when Clayton shot him," Tom says.

Weaver think about this new information for a second before nodding his head and the fighters lower their weapons.

"I want to know the whole story as soon as we get back to base," Weaver says to Tom. Tom nods and Anthony comes forward and helps Pope walk as we continue our walk to the school.


	26. Chapter 26

When we get back to the school I don't really know what to do now. Mike's funeral is going to be in another hour and then Weaver has a meeting that I have to attend. So I go to my room and close the door behind me. I put my backpack down on my bed and ruffle through it until I find what I'm looking for. I take out the Book and sit on the bed with it on my lap. I don't know what made me think about this, I guess Mike's death really hit home. I had lied earlier to Hal when I said I didn't have any other pictures of my family besides the Christmas card and the picture of me with my siblings. There's a picture of everyone in my family in the Book along with their page. Some pages are so old the pictures are drawings since they hadn't invented a camera yet. I flip to the middle, where my family is. All the pages before it are my ancestors. I find my mom's page and see her smiling face in the picture. I scan the writing underneath it in her neat scrawl. Her handwriting usually wasn't this good, but she wrote with extra care when she wrote in here. I flip to the next page and she my face. There are two pictures, one when I was young and one more recent. Most of the writing is in my mom's handwriting and the last few sentences are in my handwriting. I read what she wrote about me and smile, running my hand over the writing. There are indents in the page from where she pressed the pen on the paper so hard. I flip the page and find Jimmy's face from when he was a toddler staring up at me. I flip through Marie's page, not really being able to look at it because that pain is still too fresh, but flip to James's page. James, he was the second oldest. I haven't seen him since he was taken, but I have hope that I will find him. My dad doesn't have a page in here because the abilities came from my mother's side of the family. He knew of course, but he never had any abilities. After James's page there are a few blank pages. My mom must've put them in for when her kids had kids. Now I think about how slim that chance is. Half of my family is gone or missing, the other half barely just holding on. I close the Book, resting my elbows on it and start to cry into my hands. A few minutes later I hear the door being pushed open.

"Laura, the…" the voice stops when he sees that I'm crying.

"Laura?" Hal asks and I hear him close the door. His shoes squeak on the floor a little and I feel him sit down beside me.

"Are you ok?" he asks.

I shake my head. "Not really."

I put my face back in my hands and I feel him shift on the cot. I put the Book beside me as he puts his arm around me and I lean into him, burying my face in his chest. I feel his chin rest on the top of my head and feel him shift closer to me, wrapping his other arm around me. We don't say anything; he just holds me as I cry. Five minutes later he breaks the silence.

"If we want to be at Mike's funeral, we should hurry."

I raise my head and nod. He stands and I wipe the tears from underneath my eyes and then I get up too.

"Ok, let's go," I say. He nods and opens the door for me. I walk into the hallway and wait for him to close the door. He leads me outside to the back of the school. Almost everyone is already here and I'm relieved that everyone wasn't waiting for me. Mike has already been buried and there's a stake with his name written on it. Jimmy comes to me and I put my arm around his shoulder. After everyone gets here, the service begins. Dai and another fighter unfold a battered American flag and Hal steps forward.

"Mike was a good man; a good father. I could tell from being around him how much he loved Rick. Like all of us here today he was faced with a decision. He could've run and saved himself, but instead, he stood his ground and fought for us. I'm gonna miss him. We're gonna miss him," Hal says and then comes to stand beside me again. I take his hand and squeeze it, hoping it might comfort him…and me. Tom steps forward next.

"If this was a proper military funeral, we'd have somebody playing TAPS. That's a bugler's song from the Civil War. It used to signify the end of the day's work and in a way it's a lullaby. To tell soldiers that all was well and that it was safe to rest. So rest easy Mike. We'll take it from here," Tom says and I start to cry again. He returns to his spot next to Anne. Dai and the other fighter start to fold the flag up and Lourdes steps forward. She starts singing a song that I don't recognize, but it's fitting for a funeral. Dai takes the folded flag and walks to Rick. Rick accepts the flag and Dai walks past Hal to stand behind him. People start to walk forward, laying flowers they've gathered on Mike's grave and walking back into the school. Hal steps forward to pay his respects and I follow him, our hands still joined. Jimmy follows right after. I turn to go back to the school, but Hal drops my hand and starts walking the other way. He just needs some alone time. I look at Jimmy, who is walking toward me. I put my arm around his shoulder and sadly pat his other arm with my other hand.

"Come on Jimmy," I say, glancing at Hal retreating figure on more time before turning and heading back to the school.

Later that night Hal comes to me as I'm staring out the window.

"You alright?" he asks and I know what he's referring to.

"Yeah," I say, "Mike's death just kind of reminded me of my family."

"Yeah, me too," he says. He's silent and I can tell he's thinking about something really hard, so I let him think.

"Listen, we need to talk… about what happened with Clayton when the bullet, um, stopped," he says.

I straighten; Tom said he'd give me some time, but I knew that Hal wouldn't. I had been thinking about what to say to him when he finally wanted answers, but now my mind is drawing a blank.

"Ok, um, let's go somewhere a little more private," I suggest and he follows me back to our shared room. I lean against the window sill and he leans against the opposite wall. I try again to think of what to say, but I can't come up with anything, so I just start talking.

"I never thought anyone who find out like this. I mean I knew that someone would find out eventually, I just never thought of what to say that could really explain it," I babble.

"How about starting with what "it" is?" he suggests.

"Right… well I guess it would just be easier to show you," I say. I walk to Matt's bed and pick up a ball underneath it.

"Hal, catch," I say and throw it. He raises his hands to catch it, but I freeze it before it reaches him. He tilts his head and looks at it and I see that his eyebrows are like up to his hairline.

"Wow," he finally says.

"Actually it's called molecular deceleration," I joke. I walk up to it and circle it as I talk.

"The very molecules of the ball are slowed to the point where they appear to have stopped. The ball is still moving, but the distance it's covering is so small that you can't see it," I explain.

"And you did this?" he asks.

"Yep, just like I did with the bullet," I say. I watch him for a reaction.

"Ok," he finally breathes out. I sigh in relief; at least he didn't run screaming from the room calling me a freak.

"So, um, so this is what I can do. My parents called it a special ability. It's passed on through your blood lines. With each generation, the stronger the effect it has. The first person in my family that could do this was my great grandmother and she could only freeze things the size of a fly and only for a few seconds. My ability I can hold out for a minute. Actually fifty seven seconds is the record. My mom counted, but that was a while ago and I think I can hold it out longer now. But anyway, I control this power through my hands, so when Clayton tied them, I couldn't use my ability," I explain all at once. I wait to see how he's processing all of this. He thinks about it for a second before asking a question.

"Ok… so how did Clayton know you could do this?" he says, waving at the ball in mid air.

"Oh, yeah, um, before we move to that though, you might want to get ready to catch that," I say pointing to the ball, "because it could unfreeze anytime. And when it does it's going to move at the same speed that it was moving at before I threw it."

"Ok," he says raising his hands.

"Oh and I can also unfreeze things that I've frozen. I don't have to wait for things to unfreeze by themselves."

I raise my hands and unfreeze it and Hal catches it easily.

"Ok well to answer your question, Clayton knew about my ability because he found something. Every family has a book that's passed through the generations. It has a page of each family member in it that has an ability. Like in my family, my mom had an ability, so she's in the book. All of her children have a page in there too. Now my dad isn't though because he isn't from my mom's bloodline; in other words he doesn't have any abilities. Now everyone has a page in the Book, just because you have the potential of having an ability through the blood in your veins."

"What do you mean by "the potential"? Do some people not get powers even though they're a part of the bloodline?" he asks and I'm impressed. This is the first time I've had to explain this to someone before so I'm amazed that he can follow.

"One thing that my family is big on though is that we say that we have abilities, not powers. My parents were very strict in pointing out that we are just regular human beings. They didn't want us to think that we have divine powers or anything like that, so they called them abilities," I say. He nods his head.

"And to answer your question, yes, you can be… "skipped over" I guess you could say. All your siblings could have abilities, but you might not. You still get a page in the Book though just because you are a part of the bloodline. Also because your children have the potential to have abilities," I tell him.

"This book, where is it?" he asks.

"It's… safe," I answer. I see a look of disappointment on his face.

"Hal, it's not that I don't trust you, but this book contains all the secrets of my family; our weaknesses and strengths, all the secrets of our spells and potions. If you were to accidently slip and say something, I don't want to know what would happen," I say.

"Wait, do you say spells and potions?" he asks incredulously. "What are you and Jimmy witches or something?"

"Hardly. The spells are more rhymes to help us remember the potions and the potions are ready just herbal remedies that our ancestors created because that was the only medicine they had. But they can still prove valuable, especially now since we don't have everything that modern medicine used to offer before the invasion. And Jimmy's ability hasn't appeared yet. Usually they appear when you're around thirteen at the youngest, fourteen at the oldest and he's only twelve," I say.

"So why keep this a secret; why not tell Weaver about your abilities? You could really help," he comments.

"Well if I need to use my ability, I will, no matter how many people see. It's just easier if everyone doesn't know. I mean, people won't trust you and some, like Pope, will try to take advantage of them," I explain.

"If it's easier if people don't know then why tell me?" he whispers.

"Because I know I can trust you," I say, coming to stand next to him.

"And how do you know that?" he asks a little pride showing through.

"Because out of everyone here, you're the first friend I made here. Really my only friend," I say.

"Oh, I'm touched," he says, covering his heart with both hands.

"Oh shut up," I say, playfully nudging him.

"Now why aren't you freaking out? I just told you one of the world's most kept secrets of all time and you're acting like it's perfectly normal," I say.

"What's normal anymore?" he says and snorts.

"True," I agree.

"Just one more question; what are you called? I mean if you don't call yourself witches, what do you call yourself?" he asks, turning to face me.

"I don't know; we never really came up with a name. Our ancestors didn't want us to think that we weren't still human or that we were better than them, so they never came up with one. But I guess that if I had to create on, I would say… the Silence," I answer

"Why?" he asks.

"Because for many, many years hundreds of people like us managed to keep our existence unknown and… silent."


	27. Chapter 27

The next day I get up the next morning and suit up. I know that I'm not on any missions or posts, but Colonel Porter should be coming today, or at least that was what Weaver told us, but he's been acting a little differently lately. I push that thought out of my mind and focus on getting up because I really don't want to. I push myself to get up and start getting dressed. I smile at Jimmy's still form lying on the cot next to mine; he had sentry duty last night, so he's probably only been sleeping for a few hours. I lightly kiss him on his head before exiting the room. I put my gun on my back and make my way to the cafeteria. I eat my breakfast, a yummy bowl of oatmeal (defiantly sarcasm) and then remember that I have an "appointment" with Anne. She wanted to take a look herself at my wounds; the ones on my side, cheek and head. I put my bowl in the dirty bin and walk to the med lab. I walk into the room and see Rick sitting at a table and Anne, Tom, Weaver and, who I assume is Colonel Porter from how he's dressed, talking to Pope. Anne sees me and gives me the "one second" hand gesture. I nod and look around. I see Rick drawing something at his own little table. Maybe I could talk to him, get him to reach out. I walk over to him and kneel next to the table.

"Hey Rick, how you doing?" I ask him, but he doesn't respond; he just keeps drawing. Then he snaps his head to the right and I follow his gaze to Weaver. Weaver comes over to us and just watches Rick draw until something catches his eye.

"When'd you draw this?" Weaver asks Rick, his hand on one of his drawings.

"It's art therapy Weaver," I tell him.

Then Anne comes up behind Weaver.

"Therapy?" Weaver asks.

"I asked Rick to sketch what he was thinking. Sometimes it can help kids who have been in a traumatic experience get their feelings out," Anne explains.

"What made you draw this?" Weaver questions Rick pointing at the same drawing as before. Rick doesn't say anything and just barely acknowledges Weaver's there.

"I'm talking to you?" Weaver says a little harshly and I stand.

"Weaver," I say in a tone that's warns him to back off. Thankfully Colonel Porter shows up because I think that Weaver would've kept interrogated the poor kid.

"So he knows a thing about demolition, but he's design only, I don't want him anywhere near the raw materials. And he's under guard at all times," Porter orders and Tom agrees.

"You two get those damn demolition charges made," Porter says.

"Ok," Tom says and then they head for the door to get started on just that.

"Take it," Rick says suddenly. Everyone stops and stares at him.

Rick picks up the drawing and holds it out to Weaver.

"Take it," Rick repeats and Weaver takes it slowly. Then Rick goes back to drawing and everyone slowly walks out of the room, leaving me and Anne in an uncomfortable silence. After a moment Anne looks at me.

"Take a seat there," she says pointing to the closest cot. I do as she says as she goes to get some supplies. She comes to me and draws the curtain. She looks at my head wound and cheek first. She takes off the butterfly bandage on my cheek.

"Lourdes probably didn't need to put this on there," she murmurs more to herself than me.

She then looks at my head.

"Well that should heal in a week. Do you have a headache?" she asks.

"A little, it was worse yesterday," I say.

"Well if they get worse you tell me, you might have a concussion," she says and then stands back.

"Can you take off your shirt?" she asks. I do as she asks and put my shirt beside me. She takes off the bandage on my side and thankfully there's no blood on it. She looks at the stitches and then takes a new piece of gauze out of a bag. She sprays some disinfectant over it and tapes the gauze over the wound.

"Well it's healing nicely, but I don't want you fighting right now. After everything with Clayton it's a wonder it didn't get infected. You've already pushed your luck to the limit so I say that you should heal now and fight later," she says and I don't bother to protest.

"Fine," I say somewhat reluctantly. I (carefully) jump down off the table and head for the door.

"Laura," Rick says as I pass him. I stop and look at him a little surprised.

"Rick?" I ask. He folds out a folded piece of paper.

"You need to know," he says cryptically. I take it and unfold it. I see a drawing of rows of rectangles that have lines coming from them up to ceiling. Inside each rectangle is a stick figure.

"I don't understand," I say a little darkly because of the feeling of dread I get just looking at it.

"You will," he says and goes back to drawing. I wait to see if he will say anything else, but he doesn't so I fold the drawing up and put it in my jacket pocket. I turn and walk out into the hall. I start to walk back to my room when I hear my name being shouted through the halls.

"Laura, Miss. Boland!" a woman shouts as she runs toward me.

"Laura, we haven't met before I don't think. I'm Mrs. Ronan, the teacher for the Second Mass's children. I replaced the last teacher and I heard that you are temporarily not a fighter anymore. I was wondering if you could help me?" she asks.

The next day I find myself sitting with Mrs. Ronan one hour before school starts. I learn that she wasn't a teacher, but just someone who volunteered to teach the Second Mass's kids. We're in the classroom that's been set up for the school and I still don't understand why she thinks I can help her. She takes out a textbook and a notebook.

"You say that you were in college to become a psychologist?" she asks me.

"Yeah I was. I still don't understand why you think I can help teach these kids? It's been a while since I've done basic science or English," I tell her.

"Ok, well what about social studies, government, physics, Spanish?" she asks.

"Well, I do know some simple Spanish and math," I say.

"Good because math is my worst subject; to do and teach," she says with a little laugh.

"Ok, I don't have anything better to do, so why not? What do you have?" I ask looking over her notes and the textbook with her. This is how it goes for the next hour until the kids start to come in. The first class is mostly teenagers, probably high schoolers. Mrs. Ronan starts class off as usual and I just watch. After two hours these kids leave and are replaced by Matt's class.

"Laura!" Matt says when he sees me sitting in here.

"Hey Matt," I say when he runs up to me.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"Well until Dr. Glass tells me that I can fight again I'm going to be helping Mrs. Ronan teach you guys," I tell him.

"Ok everyone, take your seat," the teacher says.

"Ok, well, bye Laura," he says and practically bounces to his seat.

This class goes smoothly with me just observing for the English part of the class, but then comes the math part and Mrs. Ronan waves me over. I stand up with her in front of the class and she introduces me.

"Ok everyone, this is Laura. She's going to temporarily be your new teacher for the math and Spanish," she says.

"I am?" I whisper to her.

"You are," she says and I try to smile for the class's benefit. Mrs. Ronan sits down behind her desk and watches me.

"Ok, so math. Can anyone tell me what you were learning yesterday?" I ask and everyone raises their hand. Wow it's sort of refreshing having everyone raise their hand compared to the last class filled with teenagers who never raised their hand. I pick the kid right in front of me.

"We were learning how to multiply numbers like three hundred by two."

And so begins my first lesson as a teacher.


	28. Chapter 28

The next day I wake up and remember that there's no school today, so I go down to the cafeteria and help Aunt Kate serve breakfast. It's not the most enjoyable job, but everyone has to do their part and since I'm not a fighter (right now) and there's no school today, I have to do something.

The last people to walk through the line though are Weaver, Tom and Hal. I grin at Hal's sleepy expression.

"Up late last night?" I tease.

"Ha, ha, very funny and yes; I had the twelve to three sentry posting," he says.

"So what are you doing up this early, usually Weaver let's you sleep in?" I ask curiously. It must be something big for him to get up so early after going to bed so late.

"I'm going to check out the alien tower thing with Dai and my dad," he says.

"One second," I say and I quickly run around the table, grab a bowl and wait in the line with him for some oatmeal.

"Ok, so why exactly are you joining to take a look at this thing?" I ask.

"Well we need to know where to put the bombs to get the most damage. Weaver thinks that if we can get close and look at it, we could do just that," he answers. I nod and we move with the line before I can think of something to say.

"So how are dealing with… with what I told you?" I whisper.

He shakes his head. "After everything I've seen I don't think anything can shock me anymore."

"Still, it's still a stretch from aliens. You sure you're ok with it?" I ask just to be sure.

"Yeah, I'm fine with it," he says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ok," I say slightly laughing. We got some mushy oatmeal plopped into our bowls and then we walk to the closest table.

"I remember when I told my best friend about it, she completely freaked. She said stay away from me and she practically ran screaming from the room," I say laughing at the memory, but also feeling that slight twinge of pain.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"No, it's ok. It was actually sort of funny," I say.

"Still, you lost your best friend. That can't have been the easiest thing to go through," he comments.

"Yeah well, after my mom asks why my best friend just went screaming out of the house and I told her that I told her about my ability, my mom thought it best that we leave the state," I say.

"Wow, can you say protective parent," Hal jokes and I elbow him in the ribs.

"It wasn't that- well it wasn't just that," I say and we laugh for a second. "No, but she was also worried that my so called best friend would tell people. Of course no one would believe her, but she still didn't want to stick around for it."

He doesn't know what to say, so he just nods.

"Well, I'm glad you told me," he declares.

"Well, that's a first. I have never told any of my friends about my ability and not have them freak out of me. It feels rather nice," I joke and we laugh again.

"But really, thank you. You have no idea what it's like a have a friend that I don't have to keep secrets from. I mean Jimmy knows, but he's family and sometimes you need someone else," I say.

"Trust me I understand what you mean about the whole wanting someone else to talk to besides your family. My family can be suffocating sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have my family, but sometimes…" he trails off.

"I know what you mean," I say. We eat in silence for a minute before Hal asks me something.

"So Jimmy, he doesn't have an ability, right?"

"Well, it's sort of complicated. He doesn't have one yet, but you get them when you're around thirteen or fourteen, so he might not have his yet. But then he might never get one, it's happened before," I answer.

"Do you know what it'll be?" he asks.

"There's no way to predict that. But it's usually similar to what everyone else in your family has," I say.

"So what other abilities are there?" he asks.

"Well, I slow down molecules, you could speed them up to the point where they catch fire, or explode or both," I say and he grins and says, "Cool."

I reach over and punch him lightly in the arm. "Typical boy, you love anything that explodes."

"And don't you forget it," he jokes back. We laugh a little before I continue.

"You could also glimpse into the future. And when I say glimpse, I mean glimpse, you can't see detailed movies of the futures, just flashes. I heard of people with telekinesis, psycho kinesis," I stop when I see his confused expression.

"Psycho kinesis is when you can move objects that you can't see with your mind," I clear up.

"Ok, so what's the difference between that and telekinesis?" he asks.

"Good question,-," I say.

"I try," he interrupts. I glare at him until I'm sure he won't interrupt me again, but then I break out into a smile.

"Telekinesis only works on things you can see," I say.

"Ok," he says.

"There's also teleportation, phasing, as in walking through walls, biological healing, transmutation of matter, or changing something's shape into another or basically shape-shifting, energy shield or force field, telepathic projection-" I stop when I see his face.

"Too much?" I ask.

He nods yes and I mentally slap myself. Of course he's freaked out, that was a lot to tell him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone that fast, that was too much-" I say, but my voice I drowned out by Tom calling Hal's name.

"Hal! Time to go!" Tom yells and he looks back at me.

"Don't be sorry, I asked a question and you answered it. We'll talk later. Right now I gotta go help figure out how to kick some alien ass," he says and I laugh as he stands. He reaches for his bowl, but I take it.

"Go, I'll take this back. Tom seems to be in a hurry," I say.

"Thanks," he says and walks toward the door, braking into a jog halfway there.

The next day I am teaching, but for right now I'm not since I don't teach the little kids- yet. They're too energetic for me since I've just been feeling tired lately because of my wound. I found that I really enjoyed teaching, but not as much as I enjoyed fighting. I am a little surprised to find Matt sitting on the floor in the hallway looking very sad since I saw him earlier today playing outside with the other kids very happy.

"Hey Matt, why so sad?" I ask.

"My dad and Hal went to go fight," he says.

"Ah," I say and sit beside him.

"You worried about them?" I ask.

"I always am. I just want to fight and be like dad and Hal. But everyone says I'm too young," he says.

"You know, the first time I asked my dad to show me how to use a gun he said the same thing, that I was too young," I divulge and he looks up at me surprised.

"Really?" he asks.

"Yep, but eventually he taught me. Did you ever think that your dad doesn't want to teach you how to use a gun because he isn't ready for his little boy to grow up?" I ask. He thinks about this for a second.

"I don't know, maybe," he shrugs. There's a moment of silence before I come up with something to say.

"Ok how about this. You stay after class every day and I'll teach you everything I know about some military tactics and weapons so that by the time you're allowed to fight you'll be smarter and know more about how to fight than anyone else," I offer.

"Yeah, sure," he says, but I can tell that he's not too enthusiastic, but it's the best I can offer.

"Ok Matt, if you ever want to talk I'll be here," I say, rubbing his arm comfortingly. I stand, I wince a little since it always agitates my side wound when I do, and leave him be. He probably just needs some alone time.

I spend the rest of my day helping where I can; whether it's cooking, teaching (more like making plans for tomorrow's classes) or getting guns and ammo ready for use. I find that I'm rather bored, so I make my way to the med lab. Maybe Anne will have something for me to do. Strangely though, she isn't here. Usually she's here 24/7 except for meal breaks. I sigh in disappointment and leave.

I find some more things to help out with to pass the time until Tom, Weaver and Hal get back. After dinner, which I spend with Jimmy, Anne, Ben, Matt and Rick (who barely eat and never talks), I decide to go to bed. My side is hurting a little, but it's barely noticeable.

The next morning I wake up and find out that Weaver, Tom and Hal have just gotten back. I take a guess at where they'll be and find I'm right as I approach the armory.

"First chance I'm going after her dad. First chance," Hal says and he walks out of the armory. Dai bumps into me as he enters the armory.

"What was all that about?" Dai asks me.

"I have no idea," I answer. But I have a feeling that it's about Karen because who else would Hal care about that much that's a girl.

"So you know anything about that mission that they just got back from? I've been a little out of the loop," I ask him since I've been a little out of the loop.

"Yeah, they went to scout the alien tower over Boston so we can know how to hit it for the attack," he says.

"What attack?" I ask.

"Wow, you really have been out of the loop. Ok so in… two days now the Second Mass along with the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh are going to attack the tower, hopefully knock it down. Each Mass gets a different leg of the tower and we use C4 to blow it up," he explains.

"Ok, so…" but my voice trails off when I hear a voice shouting from outside.

"All right everybody gather round, I got a demonstration. Come on, everybody, let's go. Come on, come on, I'm only going to do this once," Pope shouts. I exchange a look with Dai before we start walking out front. I see Jimmy and Hal standing over at the far side and run to join them.

"So, the score is: aliens one, humans zero. Hell, humans aren't even on the board," Pope starts saying and I resist the urge not to roll my eyes. He rattles on about something before Weaver and Tom come out onto the lawn.

"Oh, the whole gangs here," Pope comments and this I do roll my eyes. "Good I do not want to have to do this twice."

"You're supposed to be making bombs, Pope," Weaver says.

"You ever heard of multi-tasking, it's all under control," Pope says.

"It better be, because I'm itching for a reason to put you back behind bars," Weaver yells in response and I smile slightly at the idea.

"Hey take it easy, I've been studying hard. So can anyone tell me, why are we here, why are we losing the war, why's that? Because the bad guys have us outgunned. Hell it takes an entire magazine just to put a dent in one of their tin soldiers," Pope says, limping down from his podium.

"Hey," Pope says and points at a fighter with a loaded gun. The fighter looks at Weaver and he nods.

"Watch him!" Weaver commands and many guns rise at Pope when he gets the gun. Pope looks back at them, maybe a little nervous, but you can't see it in his expression. He then points the gun at a dead Mech body and fires an entire clip into it, barely scratching it. He holds the weapon up and holds it behind him, knowing that someone was already on their way to get it.

"So that's the way it's been. But there's a new sheriff in town. It's a standard bullet, only it's got a Mech metal slug," he says and hands one to Weaver. "A forty-five?"

Again the fighter looks at Weaver. "Captain?"

"Go ahead," Weaver orders and the fighter gives Pope a forty-five. While I don't know everything there is to know about guns and weapons, I do know a lot for someone my age, and a girl at that. My dad taught me how to shoot many different types, but I am a little hazy on their names and everything. I should probably learn a little more about this stuff though if I'm going to teach Matt about it.

Pope empties out all the bullets from it and puts in the Mech one. He then takes aim at the dead Mech and after a few long seconds, he fires. There's a loud bang as the bullet goes straight through the Mech shell and then the crowd erupts into cheers. Jimmy hugs me and I swear that he's about to pick me up. I'm so surprised that I just stand there. Then what just happened starts to register and start to hug him back. I turn to Hal and hug him with one arm as we exchange smiles before Matt gets his attention.

Everyone starts to get a little quieter when Weaver steps forward. He raises his fist and declares, "We're taking this fight to them!"


	29. Chapter 29

After Pope's demonstration, Tom forces Matt to go back to school.

"Don't worry Tom, I'll make sure that Matt gets there," I say coming up behind Matt.

"No, its ok Laura, I'm sure you have other things you have to do," he says.

"Actually, I better be getting there myself," I say.

"Laura's been helping Mrs. Ronan teach. She was there for my class. She taught us how to do math, it was so cool," Matt gushes and Tom smiles.

"Yep and I found that I really enjoyed it too," I tell them.

"That's good to hear that you you've found something you like to do," Tom says.

"Yeah it is. Well come on Matt, you're missing English," I say and put my hands on his shoulders and steer him inside.

Later that day after the classes are over, I'm about to leave the classroom when Matt comes to me.

"Hey Laura, what you said earlier, about teaching me all the military stuff, do you mean it?" he asks a little shyly. I smile at him.

"Of course I did," I tell him.

"Here," I pat a chair, "Have a seat."

That afternoon I'm serving dinner with Lourdes while we talk. After everyone is served, we take some food for ourselves and sit down with Anne, Tom, Hal, Ben and Matt. Everyone is talking and I jump right into the conversation. A half an hour later someone taps my shoulder.

It's Uncle Scott, "Hey Laura, can you help me with something?"

"Um, yeah, sure," I say and get up to put my bowl away before walking with him to a classroom.

"Ok, so what do you need help with?" I ask as we walk.

"You'll see," he says cryptically.

"Ok, why the need for all the secrecy?" I ask.

"You'll see," he repeats and I chuckle. I don't say anything until we get to the classroom and I gasp when I see what's sitting on the table. It's an old projector and a few tins of reel. I walk over to it, looking at its condition.

"Where did you find this?" I ask him.

"It was behind the library in storage. I also found some short movies. I thought that we could set it up in the gym and play them. Everyone's been so stressed lately, I thought it would be fun," he says.

"Yeah, but what do you need me for?" I ask.

"Matt said something to me yesterday about how you loved movies and something about how to play them," he says.

"I don't remember saying that and unfortunately I don't know how to set this up. My dad used to have a projector, but he got rid of it when I was young, so I don't remember how to use it. But I'd be happy to help in any way I can, I think it'd be a great idea to play these," I say.

"Well lucky for us, I do know how to set it up. Now can you help me move this stuff to the gym?" he asks.

"Of course," I say, taking one side of the projector as he takes the other. I have to carry most of the weight, but I don't mind. I know how much everyone is going to enjoy this. When we reach the gym, we set it down in the middle of the floor.

"I'll be right back with the film reels," I say and I walk back to the room. On the way there I pass another classroom and see something that I think we could use. I take it and get the film reels. I go back to the gym where Scott is plugging in varies cables and wires to the projector.

"Oh, what have you got there?" he asks.

"The reels and a white sheet. I was thinking we can somehow hang it from the support beams in the ceiling," I say.

"Well, you're going to have to figure out how to do that, but it seems like a good idea to me," he says and goes back to his wires. I think about how to set the sheet up and go to find some cord and textbooks. When I find some I make holes in the top two corners of the sheet and thread the cord through, tying knots to hold the cord in place. Then I look at the ceiling. I cannot think of any way to get this up there except for throwing it. So I try that. After fifteen minutes I'm about to give up when I get it. I use the textbooks to hold the cord on the ground so the cord won't come back over the beam and I have to start over again. Then I try to second one, which doesn't take as long to get than the first one. I weigh that one down too and start to lift the sheet. I pull on the cord until the sheet is all the way off the ground and flat.

"Good job, for a second there I thought you weren't going to get it," Scott comments.

"I love your overwhelming faith in me," I reply sarcastically and he laughs at this.

"Come one and help me over here, for some reason this isn't working," he says and I sit down next to him.

Well, we were right. The movies were a big hit. Everyone, well mostly everyone is now sitting in the gym laughing their heads off at the movie. I'm sitting in between Jimmy and Hal as I laugh at the two flowers, or what I think are flowers. Hal just puts his head down and chuckles.

I nudge him. "Lighten up and try to stop acting so grown up. It's funny."

"Yeah, yeah, you sound like my mother," he jokes and I laugh, my laughter blending in with everyone else's. We go back to watching the movie, which is very funny when I see Tom and Anne out of the corner of my eye. Tom doesn't notice me looking at him and for some reason I see sorrow and dread in his face. This makes me very worried. I try to go back to the movie, but I just can't.

"I'll be right back," I whisper to Jimmy and walk out of there. I was intending to just take a walk through the halls when Anthony comes running past me. I know that run; that's the run that says that something is seriously wrong. I run to catch up with him and hear him yelling from inside Weaver's office.

"Captain, Dai's back sir. He's wounded real bad. Please come," Anthony informs him and they all rush out of the room at a room.

"I'll go tell Anne to meet you in the med lab," I shout at them.

"You do that," Weaver yells back at me as he races out front.

I run to the movie and slow to a walk. There's no reason to alert everyone else. I find her and whisper to her that Weaver needs her NOW in the med lab. She taps Lourdes shoulder and gestures for her to come. They stand and follow me out. We run to the med lab as Anne puts her hair up.

"What's going on?" Lourdes asks.

"Dai just got back and he's wounded really badly. Weaver's going to meet us here with him," I inform her as we reach the med lab. We wait for a minute before a group of fighters come rushing in carrying an injured Dai. I move out of the way so Anne and Lourdes can work and stand in the corner with Tom and that one guy whose name I don't know and can't see him name tag. I don't want to leave, but I don't exactly know what to do either. Weaver walks over to Dai and talks to Dai as Anne and Lourdes try to work around him. Weaver walks over to us and a moment later so does Anne.

"He has a deep abdominal laceration, but no internal damage," Anne tells us.

"Is he going to make it?" Tom asks.

"Well he's unconscious and he's lost a lot of blood. I'll have a better idea by morning," Anne says.

"Did he give you his report?" Tom asks Weaver.

It takes a second for Weaver to answer. "Just take care of him. Five minutes C.p."

Weaver leaves with that other guy following him.

"Lieutenant Danner's moving up the food chain. I hear he's career military," Anne comments as Tom walks to Dai's side.

"Yeah, he was one of the lucky ones. He was on leave at Fort Drum when it got hit," Tom says. "I guess Weaver wanted someone with hard combat experience to help him with the planning."

Tom starts to leave and brushes past me.

"What's going on between you and Weaver?" Anne asks. Ok, this just turned into a private conversation, so I walk past Anne to stand by Lourdes.

"It's complicated," Tom says.

"I can handle complicated," Anne replies. Tom turns to her and lowers his voice when he answers, but I can still hear them talking.

"There was an incident on our last scout. I wouldn't call it a nervous breakdown, more like a guy being pushed to close to the edge, but Weaver almost didn't make it back," Tom says.

"That serious?" Anne asks. Tom nods yes in response.

"Does anybody else know?" Anne asks.

"No, only Hal. Once we got back he kind of seemed to snap out of it, so for the sake of morale we decided to keep what happened between us," he says.

"And now?" Anne asks.

Tom thinks for a second. "I'm not so sure that we the right decision."

"Tom this attack's in two days," Anne says worriedly.

"I know, but the last thing people need is me raising doubts," Tom replies.

Lourdes looks up at them, but I put a hand on her shoulder saying to respect their privacy.

"What are you going to do?" Anne asks as he back away.

"I wish I knew," Tom says and he disappears into the hallway full of people. Anne looks back at us and I decide that it's time for me to take my leave as well. I give Anne a passing nod and walk down the hall towards Weaver's office. I haven't gotten any orders yet about my part in the attack, so I have to ask him if I'm even going. I get there and there are a bunch of fighters hanging right outside the door.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"And who are you?" a man asks and I recognize him from Anne's office. He was with Weaver. I instantly do not like this man; he has the feeling of thinking he's better than everyone else just coming off him.

"A fighter of the Second Mass and a permanent fighter on Tom's unit. And who the hell are you?" I ask and a few fighters chuckle.

"Lieutenant Danner, Weaver's right hand man," he says.

"Really, it's nice to meet you. I've heard of you before," I say and stick my hand out. He doesn't take it and I hear a few more snickers from the fighters.

"Danner get in here!" Weaver shouts.

"Oh, and could you tell him I'm here to see him?" I ask Danner and he glares at me. He pushes the door open and slams it behind him.

"Thank you, I've wanted to do that all day," a female fighter says to me.

"No problem, I hate people that think they're better than everyone else," I say. After a minute Tom walks through the door and waves everybody back in. I don't move though.

"You coming?" the same female fighter asks.

"No, I want to talk to Weaver in private," I answer.

"Ok," she says and walks into the room. A few seconds later I hear this.

"Laura, you too!" Weaver barks. I jump a little at how loud he yells this, but walk in.

"So I take it I'm fighting?" I ask.

"Yes, you're going to be…" Weaver informs me of where I'm going to be and who I'll be with.

After the meetings over, which Weaver has me stay behind after to catch me up; I head down to the armory to get my weapon. I had returned it two days ago after seeing that I wasn't going to need it. A plus, it's not really like I need a weapon to defend myself/ others. I get my weapon and load it and then am walking to my room when I bump into Lourdes.

"Sorry," she murmurs, but I can tell that something's weighing on her mind. Usually she is very sharp, not the usual type of person that you walk into. I mean around corners yeah, but in a straight hallway where you can see the other person coming from a mile away.

"Lourdes, something wrong?" I ask.

"Well, um," she says and looks like she's trying to decide whether or not to tell me.

"Lourdes whatever you have to say can stay between us if you want it to," I urge her.

She sighs and then says, "Ok, what I'm about to tell you though, I don't think it should be kept a secret, I just don't know how to tell anyone."

"Lourdes, just start from the beginning," I say calmly and take her shoulders in my hands.

"Ok…" and she begins telling her story.

Anne, followed by Tom, walks into the med lab. I tap Lourdes shoulder and she turns from putting things into cabinets.

"Lourdes, tell Tom what you told me," Anne says. Lourdes looks at me from the corner of her eye and I nod, just barely.

"It's Captain Weaver. I heard what you were saying about him earlier and… he came to me a couple weeks ago and asked me to help him with some medication," Lourdes says.

"Prescribed by your old friend Dr. Harris," Anne adds and something in her tone makes me think that they weren't really friends.

"Yeah, he said he came to me because he didn't want to bother Dr. Glass," Lourdes says. That's new, she didn't tell me that.

"And because he knew I'd ask questions," Anne says.

"Ok, what kind of medications?" Tom asks.

"Phenobarbital to sleep and amphetamines to wake up. It's a classic addictive cycle and once you start it's hard to stop," Anne answers.

"What would that… what would that do to him?" Tom asks and it's obvious the pressure that he's feeling right now.

"Depends on what he's taking. One or two a day, probably nothing," Anne says.

"And more?" Tom asks, rubbing his chin.

"The symptoms could be extreme. Paranoia, mood swings, even hallucinations. Tom if Weaver's abusing his drugs there's a good chance of what you saw in Boston, that could happen again," Anne says.

Tom doesn't say anything; I don't think he knows what to say to this. He just blinks and looks down with his eyes glazed over. I knew that if I were him, I would be thinking this.

_What the hell am I going to do now?_


	30. Chapter 30

After the conversation with Lourdes telling us about Weaver's drug abuse Tom leaves to make up a plan. He told us to get some rest and he'll deal with it in the morning. Reluctantly I obey and go to my room. Everyone is here except for Tom and mostly everyone's asleep, except Hal.

I quietly shut the door and sigh as I sit on my cot.

"What's wrong?" I hear a voice say.

"Hal?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's me. So what's wrong?" he asks. I sigh again and walk over to his cot. If the others aren't asleep, just pretending to be, I don't want them to overhear.

"Your last mission, to check out the tower with Tom and Weaver," I say.

"Yeah, what about it?" he says and I can hear his tone get guarded.

"Don't worry, I know what happened. About Weaver's breakdown," I whisper.

"How?" he says.

"I overheard Tom and Anne talking about it," I say.

"He's been acting… differently lately. When he was debriefing me earlier about the attack I asked him a few questions, like if the Fourth and Fifth had contacted us yet and he got all defensive. Like I had no business knowing," I say.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," he sighs.

"Well, I think that-" I'm about to tell him the rest when Tom walks through the door. I stand up, but he's so tired he doesn't even notice me.

"Tom, you alright?" I ask concerned. Not like the way I'm concerned about Weaver, but just concerned because there's a lot of pressure that comes with being the one to deal with Weaver. He looks at me, noticing me for the first time.

"Yeah, it's just… you know," he finishes when he sees Hal.

"Yeah, I do," I say. I sigh and walk back to my cot. I peel my jacket and take my pajamas from underneath my bed. I walk across the hall to the bathroom and change into them. Then I go back to my room and get into bed.

"Goodnight," I hear Hal whisper from the other side of the curtain.

"Night," I repeat back.

The next morning I get up and get ready as usual. Get changed out of my pajamas into my regular clothes, brush my teeth, comb my hair, etc. I go back to my room and grab my gun. I walk down to the cafeteria and get in line. Since Weaver put me back on duty, I don't have to help serve the food first.

"Back to fighting, I see?" Aunt Kate comments.

"Yes, Weaver put me back on duty yesterday," I say.

"Shame, I'm going to miss having someone to talk to," she says.

"Don't worry, I'll be around," I say. Some oatmeal is plopped into my bowl and I grab a spoon and drink.

I sit down and find that Hal isn't here yet. I shrug and eat my breakfast, as horrible as it is.

"Laura," I hear someone say and I look up.

"Tom, what can I do for you?" I ask. He sits down across from me.

"Weaver put me on sentry duty with Hal. I need to talk to him about… you know what. Can you go with Hal on the scout?" he asks.

"Yeah, sure. When?" I say and he gets up.

"A few minutes. Meet me and Hal by the front entrance. He knows the details of the mission and will fill you in," Tom says and turns and starts walking away.

"And Tom," I say.

"Yeah?" he says turning back.

"Good luck," I say.

"I hope I won't need it, but I feel like I will," he answers.

I'm walking down the halls to get out front. I see Hal and Tom talking by the windows that show the courtyard. Hal turns to lean against the window sill and puts his head in his hand. I start walking towards them and can hear Hal's question.

"Alright, you stay here; I'll go on the mission. But I need another rider. You have anybody in mind?"

Tom glances at me as I approach them.

"Yep, me," I say.

"She knows everything, even the reason why I have to stay," Tom says and Hal nods. After a moment of sort of uncomfortable silence, Hal speaks again.

"And you're sure about this?"

"I don't see any other way," Tom replies. It's fairly easy to tell that Hal doesn't like this plan.

Tom clasps Hal's shoulder.

"Be careful," Tom says as his goodbye and walks away.

"Ok, let's go," I say and we walk out front.

We get through 119 seeing signs of Mechs and skitters, but make it to Route Two without a hitch, but when we get there that's when everything changes. Hal slows down and stops. I stop behind him. He turns his bike off and gets off it. I do the same and follow him over to the side of the road. He kneels down on the ground and I see what he's looking at. Mech tracks.

"When was the last rain?" he asks.

"Yesterday night," I say.

"Mechs and skitters have been all through here in the last day. This just keeps getting better and better," he says depressed and stands up, his movement guarded and stiff.

"Let's get back to the Second," he says his tone emotionless. He starts walking back to the bikes.

"Hal… Hal are you ok?" I ask cautiously. I was training to be a psychologist; I know the signs of when something is troubling someone. He doesn't seem to hear me and keeps walking, but I know he had to have heard me.

"Hal. Hal! Stop!" I say walking behind him and grabbing his arm. He stops and yanks it from my grasp.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Talk to me," I say.

"We can't talk about this now," he says and tries to walk away from me again.

"No, now is the perfect time to talk about it," I protest and step in front of him.

"You can tell me," I whisper.

He puts his hand to his forehead.

"It's just everything. Karen, Ben, Weaver," he finally says. I'm silent for a moment, but I can't think of what to say.

"Every day that Karen's been gone, I feel like I'm never going to get her back. And Ben has been acting… different ever since we got him back. And now Weaver, the guy that everyone is depending on to keep them alive might have lost it. Why is everything against us?" he says.

"I don't have an answer to that. But I have a solution. If you have a problem, you fix it," I say.

"And how are we supposed to do that? Make a wish and hope it all goes away?" he says a little too calmly and sarcastically for my taste.

"No, you figure out how to fix it and you don't give up until you do. If you lose how then you've lost all chance of fixing things. If you give up on Karen then you truly will never find her again. If you think Ben is different, then talk to him about it. And Weaver, there's really nothing you can do until a moment presents itself where you can. But you can wait and plan for what you'll do when it comes," I say in one big rush. He closes his eyes and nods. When he opens them he speaks.

"And you know the worst part is that I never really knew Karen that well. I mean sure she was my girlfriend, but I think I know more about you than I ever did her," he says guiltily.

"I thought that you two had been dating for a while?" I say.

"No, only for three weeks before she…" he trails off. I nod, not needing him to continue. He walks over slowly to his bike and leans against it.

"I barely knew anything about her past and she knew almost nothing of mine. I loved her, I did, but I just have to wonder how much. I didn't even really know her," he says. I move next to him to lean on the bike too.

"My m-mom always used to believe at love at first sight; where you were a hundred percent sure that this was the person for you, even if you didn't even know their name," I say stumbling over the word mom.

"Well I don't think I believe in that," he admits.

"Me neither," I say. There's a comfortable silence between us for a few minutes.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asks.

"Don't give up hope. It doesn't matter if you are confused about your feelings for Karen, but you cared about her, some way. And if you truly care about her, no matter in what form or how much, you should never give up hope. She wouldn't want you to, would she?" I ask. He doesn't answer, so I nudge his arm.

"No, she wouldn't," he finally admits.

"Good, now let's get moving, we still have to report back to the Second," I say and walk to my bike.

"How it that you are so good with words?" he asks exasperated.

"I guess it was something I was just born with," I say smiling.

"Well, thank you," he says.

"Anytime Hal, after all you are my best friend. Well actually it's a tie," I joke trying to lighten the mood.

"Between who?" he asks disbelieving.

"Oh, I can't…" I trail off feeling the ground shake a little and the sound of stomping coming closer.

"Mech," he says and runs to me. He takes me by the arm and we run to the side of the road. The Mech is really close now. We slide down the little hill by the edge of the road and watch as not a second later a Mech emerges from the turn in the road. There's a skitter with it; it just looks like a patrol. We hold our breath as they pass right in front of us. The skitter walks over to the bikes and looks at them intently. Then it starts to look around in detail. Please don't tell me that those things can remember that the bikes weren't there. I guess they could because they go back over the area and unfortunately in more detail because the skitter spots us. It lets out a screech and the Mech turns around. Hal raises his weapon and fires, but it doesn't have Pope's new Mech ammo. It just walks this way.

"Run, I'll cover you," Hal says.

"What, no. I am NOT leaving you!" I protest.

"Run! Now! Run!" he says.

"Fine," I say and I stand up. And run straight toward the Mech as it raises it arm to fire at me.


	31. Chapter 31

"Laura!" I hear Hal yell from behind me. And as the Mech raises its arm to fire at me I raise my arms to. I freeze it and I feel Hal collide with me. I fall to the ground with him on top of me. I look up and see why he knocked me down. The skitter, which I didn't freeze, is right behind us and is running back toward us again. It jumps up into the air and I push Hal away from me so I can get my hands free. The skitter is in mid air right above us when I freeze it. It stops inches from us and I feel like I can't move either. Hal's arm hits mine as he gets out from underneath it and it seems to snap me out of it. I scurry out from under it and stand. My breathing is irregular and I have to admit that I'm freaking out. I've frozen skitters and Mechs before, but I've never down something like that before, especially not with another person with me that I've had to protect (although him probably thinks that's the other way around). I see Hal come around the frozen skitter. He comes straight toward me and hugs me.

"Never, ever do something like that again," he says and for a second I don't understand what he's talking about. Then the adrenaline starts to disappear and I remember how when Hal said to run, I ran, but toward the Mech, not away from it. I hug him back and it's quite a few seconds before he pulls away.

"Should, um, should we be leaving. I mean didn't you say that this… freezes didn't last for long?" he asks.

"Um, yeah, we should leave," I say, back to normal.

"Ok, then the sooner we get out of here the better," he says. He walks back to his bike and I go to mine. I start it and we head back to the Second Mass.

We speed into the back of the school where fighters are getting ready for battle. We park our bikes and see Weaver by a bus.

"Hey princess, I see the king's letting you fight again," Pope smirks from a truck.

"And I see that "king" is letting his only convict play with his toys again. How about you go back to loading the truck while I go and kill some skitters since you're too busy playing with his toys to do so," I say right back and run to catch up to Hal who is with Weaver.

"Captain," Hal says.

"What are you two doing back so soon?" he asks.

"We saw fresh signs of skitters and Mechs all down 119 and Route 2," Hal informs him.

"Well in that case we'll just have to punch through," Weaver says determined, but to me it sounds more like crazy.

"Captain this isn't a good idea. This isn't going to go well with all these trucks on the open road," I say.

"Then we'll take back roads and we'll crawl through the brush. You're dismissed," Weaver orders and then walks away. Hal watches Weaver and is exasperated and I just can't believe this.

"He's gonna get us all killed," I say.

"We gotta find my dad," Hal says and starts walking toward the building. I start looking out here for him when we pass Jimmy. I'm about to say hi to him when he says something first.

"Laura, Hal, wait up," he says, his tone depressed and I can tell by his face that what he's about to say isn't good.

"What is it Jimmy?" I ask him seriously.

"It's- it's about Tom," he says shyly.

"What about Tom?" I ask and I know that this is anything but good.

After Jimmy explains about Tom we go straight to Anne. She's one of the only people we can trust, plus she can help us come up with a plan. Hal goes in and fills Anne in while I and Jimmy stand guard to make sure nobody can overhear. When we decide that it's all clear, we join Hal and Anne.

"I don't believe this. Weaver's holding Tom in custody?" Anne asks unbelieving.

"Danner's locked him in the boiler room," Jimmy says. "Tom was asking him about the drugs he was taking and… he lost it."

"I'm not surprised," Anne says. Hal shuffles on his feet and I swear if he starts pacing I might just lose it. He starts pacing.

"I don't think Weaver wants to hurt your dad. I don't know why's he's doing this, but he's a good man," Jimmy says.

"No one said he wasn't Jimmy," I say and rub his arm. It's obvious how close they've become. I've seen it since day one where Weaver had Jimmy stay in the same house as him even though he wasn't a person high in the ranks.

"Good man or not, he's endangering everyone here," Anne says.

"Agreed," I say.

"We gotta get my dad out," Hal says.

"Well maybe I could help," Jimmy says and I think he has a plan.

"Dr. Glass," we hear Lourdes say from the other side of the room. She's bending down next to Dai.

"Ok, Hal, when you get Tom, you bring him here," Anne says and goes off to her patient. He nods and takes his gun off his back. We follow Jimmy as he fills us in on this plan of his.

"Ok, so Danner's in the boiler room keeping an eye on Tom. Now Weaver trusts me so Danner's going to trust me. If I can get in, get a message to Tom that we're going to get him out and then distract Danner so Tom can attack him, I think we can get him out," Jimmy says in one big breath and I'm amazed at how he can do that.

"Ok so how do we do that?" Hal asks. Then Jimmy stops at the cafeteria.

"Well, I'll pretend that I've been sent to give Tom some food and then, once I get in, I'll distract him somehow," Jimmy says.

"Jimmy, that's not a foolproof plan. What if Tom doesn't get you message about trying to get him out?" I point out.

"It's all we got," Hal says. I sigh a little angrily. I hate being backed into a corner where you only have one option and you don't really like it.

"Ok, fine," I say.

Jimmy's holding the tray of food and I'm holding Tom's gun on my back with my own in my hands. He steps forward to knock on the door when I stop him.

"You don't have to do this you know? I could do it," I say.

"No, I have to do this. I stood by and let Tom be locked up, I can't do nothing. Plus the last time you saw Danner I don't really think he liked you," he says.

"Well… yeah," I say.

"I can do this," he says.

"Yeah, I know you can. Just be careful; don't get involved in the fighting. Call us if you guys need help… um… securing Danner," I finally come up with and I ruffle his hair. Then we hear the sound of boots and Hal pops his head around the corner.

"Laura, we need to go," he says.

"Right, well, be careful Jimmy," I say and kiss his forehead. I turn and follow Hal into an empty classroom. We shut the door and wait for the guards to pass. Then we open the door and run back to the boiler room.

We can hear fighting going on inside and try the door, but it's locked. A few seconds later the door opens and Jimmy's there. Hal rushes down the steps and I follow him. Tom has Danner pinned to the floor.

"Dad!" Hal yells over all the fighting.

"Give me something to tie him up!" Tom shouts at Hal. Hal looks for something and settles on a piece of wire. He wretches the wire out of the breaker box and helps Tom tie Danner up.

"What you doing here?" Tom asks.

"Well we tried to make it to the five mile marker, but we couldn't. We saw fresh signs of skitters and Mechs," Hal informs him.

"You tell that to Weaver?" Tom asks.

"First thing," Hal answers.

"What about the attack?" Tom asks.

"He didn't care. 'We are punching through.' Dai's coming around," Hal says.

"What are we going to do with him?" Hal asks referring to Danner.

"Leave him," Tom orders.

"You son of a bitch," Danner garbles.

"We gotta find a way to stop Weaver," Tom says and they finish tying Danner up.


	32. Chapter 32

As we approach the med lab Tom takes the lead. He walks quickly to the back of the room where Anne and Dai are.

"He's weak but he'll pull through," Anne informs us. Tom walks over to Dai's side and kneels. I stand near Tom and Jimmy comes to stand by me.

"I know you're hurting Dai, but this is important. I need to know about Porter," Tom says.

"After I reached Porter's post the skitters and Mechs hit. Porter was pinned down," Dai catches his breath, "Probably dead by now."

"Dead?" Jimmy gasps. I put my arm around his shoulders and squeeze. I exchange a glance with Hal and it's obvious that he's very sad by this news. I only met Porter once and briefly, but obviously everyone here knows him rather well. There's a moment of silence for Porter.

"His team laid down cover fire for me. I got hit when a Mech blew up," Dai says.

Tom shifts. "Dai this is important, what were Porter's orders?"

"The other regiments, they never reported in. Runners went out, never came back. Porter said, that without confirmation that the Fourth and Fifth were alive, the attack should be aborted," Dai says.

"You tell that to Captain Weaver?" Tom says.

"All of it. This mission, it's no good," Dai says and then he's unconscious again.

"So we're going into this alone with all the odds possible against us?" I say.

"It's not like him, to disobey an order from Porter. What's he thinking?" Anne comments.

"He's thinking that he's going to go ahead with the mission, facts on the ground be damned," Tom says.

"So how do we stop him? He's got all the fighters and all the weapons," Hal asks.

"Most of them, not all," Tom says, looking around at all of us.

"Ok, so what's the plan?" Hal asks.

"I'm going to go to Pope, have him defuse the bomb. That way Weaver can't go ahead with the attack either way," Tom says.

"What do you mean, "either way"? I ask.

"Well, as soon as Weaver finds I'm missing, which will probably be soon, he's going to come here. Now I won't be, but you guys will be waiting. You hold him here until I can get back unless I'm already here. We'll try to talk to him, get him to change his mind. If that fails, then we tell him about the bomb," Tom says.

"Ok, so we just wait?" Anne asks.

"Yep. Hal, have Weaver walk far into the room, then you and Jimmy hide somewhere until you know you care secure him. Then wait for me," Tom says.

"Wait, what about me?" I ask.

"I have something else I want you to do; follow me," Tom says and then he starts walking for the door.

"Ok," I say and give Jimmy and Hal a parting smile.

I follow Tom to Pope's "lab" and we time this just right somehow. We manage to avoid all the fighters or at least the ones that we think will be looking for Tom to lock him back up. We enter the room and some fighters pass us with what I assume is Mech ammo.

"Dad!" Matt says when he sees Tom.

"Matt, what are you doing in here?" Tom asks, walking to Matt and I know that if the situation was different that he would probably be pissed right now that Matt was with Pope.

"I told him it wasn't a good idea-" Pope starts to start, but Tom cuts him off.

"I'm not talking to you" Tom says and takes Matt off the chair. He pushes him toward the door.

"Go back to our quarters right now," Tom orders.

"I was only trying-" Matt starts to protest and I feel kind of bad for the kid.

"I don't want to hear it. Go, right now," Tom says.

"Laura, make sure he gets there," Tom says and he winks at me.

"Sure," I say and follow Matt out of the room, hearing the door slam behind me. As we walk to our quarters, Matt is obviously mad at his dad.

"Matt," I say and touch his shoulder, but he shrugs it off.

"Matt, you know that your dad is just watching out for you, don't you?" I say.

"No, if he were really watching out for me than he would teach me how to shoot a gun. At least with Pope I can be useful," he says, huffing and crossing is arms. It's cute; I wonder if this is what I looked like when I did that.

"Yeah, well Tom just wants you to have a childhood, not have to grow up," I tell him.

"Well doesn't he care about what I want. I want to live, I want to survive, but I'm probably not because I have no idea how to defend myself since he won't teach me how to fight," he says. I sigh and am a little thankful as we reach our room. I can usually handle this sort of thing, but today, it's just a really bad day.

"Ok Matt here we are," I say and open the door for him which he reluctantly goes through. He goes straight to his cot and plops down on it. I close the door and remember what I'm supposed to do.

I walk back to Pope's lab and look through the little window in the door to see if anyone's in there. It's empty thankfully. I open the door and go in. I quickly go to the bombs and remember what Tom told me earlier about what to touch and what not to touch. I slowly take of a piece of the bomb, I think Tom called them blasting fuses. Oh well, it really doesn't matter what they're called as long as I take them and can make sure that the bombs can't go off since Tom didn't really think that Pope would diffuse them; just make it look like he did. I take all the blasting fuses for all four of the bombs and shove them in my pocket.

I walk into the med lab just in time to here Weaver ordering Pope to lower his weapon. Pope obeys and I'm a little surprised; I thought that Weaver didn't take orders from anyone but himself.

Hal sees me and nods.

"I'm not saying you're right," Weaver says, "but they deserve to know the facts of the mission."

"Call for volunteers," Tom says, "but they gotta hear both sides."

"And they will, because you'll be right there beside me," Weaver says and hands Tom his weapon back.

"Jimmy, gather everyone in the gym; ten minutes," Weaver orders and Jimmy nods.

"Yes sir," Jimmy murmurs and then walks off quickly. He nods at me as he leaves and I guess whatever happened before I came really freaked him out. Tom looks at me and says, "Laura give the blasting caps back to Pope."

I stand between Jimmy and Hal as we quietly wait for Weaver to start.

"I don't need to tell you people what's at stake; we've all been living on the edge since these alien things came. Tomorrow's assault on the structure in Boston was meant to be a first strike; a coordinated attack with the support of two other Massachusetts regiments. However, Colonel Porter lost contact with these regiments several days ago. And now it looks as if the Colonel himself might have been lost," Weaver says and this stirs up so conversation.

"Dai brought back the Colonel's last order; abort the mission unless we can confirm the existence of these other units. We still don't know if these other units exist or if they intend to carry out the attack as planned. But I know that if there's a breath left in any of those men, they will do they're damndest to carry out this attack and if that happens despite Porter's order, the Second Mass has to be there to back them up. But this attack as critical as it is, cannot be our only objective. We have a responsibility, an obligation to protect our civilians. And sometimes, in our desire to strike back, we forget that they represent our future. So I'm asking for volunteers. I need fifty fighters for this mission. If you're with me, meet me out front," Weaver says. Then fighters start pushing past me to get to the doors. Tom and Weaver share a few words before Weaver steps off the stage. He walks in between me and Jimmy, patting each of us on the shoulder as he passes. I see Hal out of the corner of my eye and I know what he's thinking because it's the same thing I'm thinking; why aren't I going with Weaver? And it's for the same reason too; the family we have here.

"Ok everybody let's get our gear together. We want to be able to move out as soon as our strike team comes home," he says. Everyone shuffles toward the other door and go in different directions.

I follow Tom and Hal outside to where Tom starts arranging posts, guards, patrols and pretty much anything needed to keep the civilians safe. And trust me when I say it's not easy. Half of the fighters that are on guard duty are leaving with Weaver, so organizing new people to take their spots is hard. Especially since no one wants the late night duties. I eventually start helping move things onto trucks and buses, well until something I don't really like catches my eye. It's Hal riding on a bike heading to the end of the line of vehicles. Although I have to admit I'm not that surprised. The look of longing to go with Weaver was clearly written all over his face when we were in the gym. He stops at the end of the line and starts helping move the rest of the boxes onto the vehicles and I start running.

"Hal!" I yell. He looks up and sees it's me. He looks guilty and then I realize what he was going to do.

"You were going to leave, just like that; without a goodbye?" I ask when I finally reach him. He doesn't say anything.

"I know why you have to do this. But you better come back, because remember that promise we made to each other a while ago the night Marie died?" I ask and he shakes his head yes.

"I don't want to have to honor that. I will, but, but you better not make me. Ok?" I ask.

"Yeah Laura," he answers.

I blink some tears away and step forward and hug him tightly.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me," he whispers into my ear.

"You're welcome Hal. And thank you too," I say.

"It was my pleasure," he says with a smile. It makes me smile a little and I nudge him.

"Now, go kick their asses and we'll be here when you get back," I joke.

"Yes ma'am," he jokes back and makes me smile again.

"Bye Hal," I say, my smile disappearing.

"Let's move out!" Weaver yells.

Hal moves toward his bike and sits on it, but before he starts it he says.

"Goodbye Laura."


	33. Chapter 33

I'm scheduled to be on sentry duty for the next three hours. As I walk to the roof where I'm supposed to be in five minutes I can't stop thinking about, well… I'm worried about Weaver and, well, Hal. I try to keep telling myself that they can take care of themselves; after all they've made it this long. But I just can't shake this feeling. I'm about to go up the steps when Tom appears in front of me.

"Hey, Laura, there's something going on. I know I can trust you, but I need to know that you won't tell anyone," he says.

"Um, sure, I won't tell anyone. What is it?" I ask a little concerned.

"Follow me," he says. He starts to walk down the south east hall and I speak to him.

"I suppose you have someone covering my sentry shift on the roof?"

"Yes, I put Ragger on it," he says.

He turns into Uncle Scott's room. I enter after him and see Uncle Scott sitting behind a table with Ben leaning on it. They're both working on a box on the table. I walk further into the room and see that it looks like a radio, but I really don't know since I know nothing about them.

"Tom?" Scott asks.

"I trust her," he says and then he mutters. "Plus I need someone I know I can really count on."

I raise my eyebrow at this, but I know that the only reason he choose me is because Hal, Dai and everyone else he would choose first are all gone on the mission, or in Dai's case, in the med lab until Dr. Glass clears him. Not that he really needs to be there, but Anne just wants to make sure. Or at least that's what she told me. I move over to Tom.

"Ok Tom, what's going on?" I ask.

"Ok, well, it seems that Scott can pick up on the skitter's transmissions from one another with that radio. If we can jam them then we might be able to stall the aliens if they attack," he says, but I can sense a but.

"But…" I urge.

"But we can't hear the noise the skitters make, so we don't know what frequency to put it on to jam their transmissions," he says. I look at Scott and Ben. I notice how Ben is concentrating hard as Scott flips through the frequencies.

"That's why Ben's here?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, he can… he can hear it," Tom says. I nod slowly and see Tom looking at me, like he's expecting something.

"I don't know what you're expecting, but after all of the alien stuff, I'm not going to go screaming from the room because of this news," I say and he looks a little relieved that I'm not afraid of Ben or anything.

"Ah, could you give us a second? The skitters must've changed the frequency that they're using for communications again. If we find the right signal, with any luck we should be able to stop the skitters and Mechs right in their tracks," Scott says and we turn to him. He picks up a part and fiddles with the radio.

Then Anne appears next to me.

"Hey," Tom says and he pulls her to the side so they can talk. I respect their privacy and don't listen in, even though I can mostly hear every word they're saying. I watch Scott fiddle with the device for a while before I hear Tom say, "I just want to get through this day," and then he starts walking back over to us

"Oh for the love of! The generator must've run out of gas. I told those kids when they filled it to make sure it was full up," Scott exclaims and he walks around the table.

"I'm think there's a spare can in the store room. Ben you want to give me a hand?" Tom asks.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Ben says, looking from Tom to the radio and then back again. I wonder what he's thinking. Ben walks with Tom to the door as Tom pats his shoulder.

"Well , I'm going to head back to the clinic. Unless you need me?" Anne says.

"No, no, I'm good, I'm good, thanks," Scott says and waves as she walks away.

"So, Laura, what made Tom bring you in on this?" Scott says motioning to the radio.

"Oh, with Weaver gone and Dai, Hal and everyone not available, I think he just wants someone that he knows he can count on to help him. You know, his right hand man," I answer.

"So, you're his second in command?" Scott asks.

"No, no, I don't think so. I just think he needs someone he knows he can trust. Someone that knows what to do in a difficult situation and can make the smartest decisions for the civilians and the fighters," I say.

"Ok, whatever you say," he retorts, unconvinced.

"Plus, he wouldn't have chosen me if Hal or Dai or somebody like that was here," I mutter.

"Oh, now don't sell yourself short. He chose you because he thought you were the best for the job," Scott says.

"Yeah, he hasn't even told me what this job is yet."

"Maybe there isn't one, maybe he just needed someone to talk to about everything that's going on," Scott suggests.

"Yeah, maybe. Well if there's nothing I can do for you, I really must be getting going. If Tom is as stressed as I think he is he probably forgot to put Ragger on for my shift for sentry duty," I say.

"Bye Laura," Scott says and I give him a small wave before disappearing from the room.

Well it turns out that Tom did forget to put Ragger on my duty. Not that it matters because as soon as I got up there so did Ragger. I guess that Tom sent him as soon as he left Scott's room.

"It's ok, I got it," he says.

"No it's fine," I say stepping forward.

"Look I know that you haven't slept for a very long time, so go get some sleep and you can pick up my shift later," he says.

"How did…?" I begin to ask.

"Please, everyone knows that you, Weaver and Tom and some others have been working around the clock lately," he says.

"Ok…" I say since it's the only thing that comes to mind. I take a few steps back and then run down the steps, really wanting to reach my bed as soon as possible. I walk through a hall and hang a right and almost to my room when I see someone lying on the ground. Now usually it would just be someone sleeping on a cot that's not raised off the ground like the ones I sleep on and I wouldn't have to worry about it. But in this case, it's Scott's room and there are no beds in there. I hurry in and see Scott lying on the ground with a small around of red liquid forming around his head. He laid into a very uncomfortable position, but I fix that as I take his pulse. He's very much alive thankfully, but he's unconscious. Since I have no idea how to help him, I get up and go to the one person I know can: Anne. So I guess that idea of getting some sleep is off the table.


	34. Chapter 34

Well it turns out that I wasn't the only one to find Scott; Ben did too and had just gone to get Anne right before I had. On my way to the med lab, Ben, Anne and Lourdes were walking out heading in my direction. I stop them.

"Hey, I need you to come to Scott's lab-" I start, but she hands her hand up and I stop.

"Ben already told me, we're on our way now," she says and I follow them as they walk.

As we get there I see Scott sitting, leaning on the table in a feeble attempt to stand. Anne rushes over to him, closely followed by Lourdes, and tries to persuade him not to stand up. Ben and I hang back for the next minute while the doc checks him over.

"Hey Laura, Ben, can you help us get him to the clinic?" Anne asks over her shoulder.

"Yeah," I say back, "Come on Ben."

We each take one of Scott's arms and put it over our shoulder and practically carry/drag him to the med lab (I know Anne and basically everyone else calls it the clinic, but I like med lab, its catchier) since he's still really out of it. We sit him down on one of the cots and I can see he has a gash on the back of his head. Thankfully it stopped bleeding, but it might need stitches.

"Hey guys, can you go get Tom? I have a feeling he'll want to know about this right away," Anne says.

"Sure," I say. "Ben, you want to come with?"

"Um, yeah, sure" he answers and hesitantly follows me out, concern for Scott clearly on his face. I know he wants to stay, but I have a feeling that Anne doesn't want anyone near her patient while she works.

We go to Weaver's office and see Tom there talking to some men and women fighters. I nod at him, signaling that we need to speak to him. He says a few more words to the fighters and then walks over.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"We have a… problem," I say, trying to find the right word. His eyebrows furrow.

"What kind of problem?" he asks.

"Follow me, we'll tell you on the way to the med lab," I say.

We walk into the med lab after explaining what happened to Tom on the way there. We walk to the back and find Scott yelping in protest to Lourdes cleaning his wound with an alcohol swab.

"Don't be such a baby," Anne says from next to them.

"I thought the physicians creed was first do no harm," Scott says.

"Oh stop it, I complained less when I was shot," I say to him jokingly. He gives me a sour face before turning to Tom.

"It was Rick, wasn't it?" Ben asks solemnly.

"He's right," Scott says unbelieving.

"How did you know it was him?" Tom asks him.

Ben looks like a deer in the headlights for a second before he stutters out, "I-I just did."

"Well Rick was hanging from the ceiling like some crazy bat, don't ask me how. And he must've been there a while because he knew exactly what to take in order to knock out the transmitter," Scott retells and Lourdes goes back to disinfecting his wound, which Scott complains at once again.

Anne turns to me and Tom and we circle in.

"We knew Rick was troubled, but sabotage? Attacking Scott?" Anne says.

"I guess whatever the harness did isn't going away. Alright we got to find him," Tom says and turns around.

I know who he's looking for. Ben knew that it was Rick, so he must know something else that could help to find him. But he's gone.

"Ok, Laura can you check all the rooms in the east wing and then meet me out front, with or without Rick?" he asks even though I know he's just being polite. I know he means "do it".

I nod my head and walk out the door, moving briskly to the east hallway. I walk from room to room, not finding Rick in any of them or any sign that he was here. I get through the entire hallway before heading out front where Tom said to meet him. I walk down the few steps and onto the grass before I hear shouting.

"Stop him! He's trying to warn the skitters!" someone shouts from the right. Everyone turns to look as Rick, closely followed by Ben runs through the side alley. Rick runs toward the barricade and dodges the fighters. Tom tries to catch him, but Rick's too fast. He jumps over the barricade and makes a run for it. I see Ben run out of the barricade after Rick. Then a man, one of the razorback haters, comes and aims a gun at Ben.

"Damn razorbacks are gonna give us up!" the man shouts.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Tom yells.

I run up to the man pointing a gun on Ben, but I know that I'm not close enough to stop him. That's when Maggie practically flies to him and just in time raises the gun as he pulls the trigger. An echo sounds through the air as Ben stops with his hands raised and says, "Don't shoot!"

As I reach Maggie and the man, so does Tom. He rips the shotgun out of the man's hands.

"Don't you ever raise a gun to my son!" Tom yells furious. Then he runs toward his son, me right on his heels.

"I was just trying-" Ben tries to explain. Tom puts a hand on his shoulder and turns him toward us.

"I know, I know. This people, they're just scared," Tom says walking him back toward the school.

"I want you to go back inside and find Dr. Glass and stay with her, ok?" Tom says to Ben. He nods and jogs back to the school. Maggie then joins us.

"You going after Rick?" she asks.

"Yeah, try and bring him back," Tom says. "Laura?"

"Yeah?" I ask.

"You got this?" he says and holds out the shotgun.

I take it with both hands, "Definitely."

"Just make sure you come back," Maggie says and Tom turns and runs after Rick.

We stand there for a second as we watch him disappear around the corner. Then we slowly walk back inside the barricade. I look at the man that almost shot Ben earlier and Maggie follows my gaze.

"You got that by yourself?" Maggie asks.

"Oh yeah," I answer her, my eyes going dark with hatred as I stare at the man. Maggie nods and walks away to do whatever she was doing earlier. I walk up to the man.

"You, what's your name?" I ask, my voice hard.

"Why do you want to know?" he says.

"Because until Tom gets back, I'm in charge. And I also want to know the man's name who tried to shoot his son, the same son that was trying to prevent Rick from warning the skitters of where we were," I say, my voice steadily rising.

He straightens a little and I swear I see him gulp.

"Now, what is your name?" I ask.

"Mark, Mark Holden," he answers.

"Good, now I know what name to yell so everyone will know every time you screw up! Now do you know what suicides are?" I ask.

"Um, I think so," he says.

"Good. Because as of right now, you are going to go into the gym and do fifty of them," I say.

"What?! Fifty?! You can't do this-" he starts to yell.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I say fifty suicides. I meant to say fifty suicides AND pushups," I yell over top of him.

"Maggie!" I shout and she's immediately at my side.

"Yes Laura?" she asks.

"Please escort Mr. Holden to the gym and makes sure he does those fifty suicides and pushups please," I say.

"With pleasure," she says. I hold out the shotgun for her to take and she grabs it.

"Come on Holden," she says and has to shove him a little before he will move towards to school. That's when I notice some of the fighters- ok, so, all of the fighters- are choking back laughter.

I roll my eyes and walk inside the school to make sure that Ben made it to Anne ok, after all, Mark Holden isn't the only razor back hater.


	35. Chapter 35

I'm still standing out front watching for Tom to come back. For the last few minutes fighters have been coming to me asking questions about different things. I can answer most of their questions since Tom kept me fairly well in the loop (since I am his second hand man- not that I would be if someone like Hal or Dai was here, or at least that's what I think). Some questions I give my best answer and tell them to ask Tom WHEN he comes back. Which would be right now since I can see him walking this way, sort of dragging Rick back by his sleeve. Rick looks at his feet, like he's ashamed and I know that something is off. Why would Rick be ashamed? Is it because he acted like he loved the skitters? Or because he ran away to find them and tell them about us? Or, dear god is it because he told them about the Second Mass?

As Tom gets closer, I look at him, that last question burning in my eyes. Unfortunately Tom nods yes and bows his head just slightly. I follow him into the school, right behind him and Rick. Other fighters have joined us, all of them asking what happened or what's going on. Tom says he'll tell them later them and just walks further into the school; to Weaver's office, which is where we find Anne and Lourdes walking in front of the door, probably on their way to lunch.

"You found him?" Anne asks disbelieving.

"Yeah, take him to the clinic," Tom says and hands him off. Anne places her arm around him, but Lourdes is hesitant. I can't say that I blame her, but give the kid a break, he's been through hell. And I would know; I still have scars from going through my own personal version of it.

Tom sees Lourdes hesitance and says, "It's ok."

Lourdes glances at Tom briefly and he nods. She goes to Rick's side and takes him by the arm.

"Tom what's going on?" Anne asks at his side.

"You should hear this," I hear him murmur to her.

Then Scott comes to us and Tom places the missing part of the radio in his hand.

"Here you go," Tom says.

"You found…" Scott says, I guess he had expected Rick not to hold onto it.

"Rick had it on him," Tom briefly explains. "I'm going to need you to get that transmitter up and running as soon as possible."

"Ok," Scott says, gripping the piece in his hand before walking to his lab.

"Come on in," Tom says and ushers everyone inside.

"Ok, we don't have a lot of time, so I'm just going to lay it out. The skitters know where we are and there's a good chance they're going to attack," Tom says. I shut the door so no one else can hear (we do not need a panic). Then I walk to stand beside Jimmy.

"We all hoped we could hang on until the strike team made it back, but that's too risky now. So I've decided to evacuate the civilians. We're going to walk them out through the tunnel behind the auditorium. Once through, they'll move west away from the city," Tom explains.

"If the skitters have the scent, they'll be crawling all over this area. It's not going to be easy to get around them," Maggie comments.

"That's why I'm going to stay behind; with a small group of volunteers. If the aliens attack we'll draw their fire, keep them focused on us, maybe open up a window for the civilians to escape," Tom says.

"But how are we going to hold off the skitters and Mechs? Our best soldiers are with Weaver," Jimmy asks tentatively.

"I know how it sounds. But I want you to think about where we are. The battles of Lexington and Concord were fought not too far from here. A small force of colonists against the entire might of the British Empire. Nobody gave them much of a chance either. Patrick Henry called it, "The battle I not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active and the brave. A small disciplined militia can not only hold out against a larger force, but drive it back because they're fighting for what rightfully belongs to them." This is our home, our world. So remember that if they come. So let's go do this," Tom says. I look at Jimmy, who coincidently is looking at me. I give him a smile, hopefully it looks hopeful. I don't know if we can do this. I mean I know that Weaver left some Mech ammo, but will it be enough.

Every one files out, rallied up. I walk toward the door when something dawns on me. I give Jimmy a nod that says, "You go ahead, I'll catch up". I close the door when the room is empty besides me and Tom. He's looking over at some maps when his head looks up at the sound of the door closing.

"Tom… it was Rick that told the skitters where we are, right?" I ask, not hostility in my voice.

He sighs. "Yes, yes it was."

"Did he tell them anything else? Like Weaver's attack plan?" I ask.

"I was thinking about that to," Tom says. "Rick told me that he told them about the school, me and Weaver. But I'm not sure if that means that he told them about Weaver or about the mission against the tower that Weaver's leading," Tom says.

"Well then don't you think we should warn them?" I say.

He looks at me. "I can't order you to do that."

"I know, but I'm volunteering," I say.

"You'll be alone; we need all the people we can here to give the civilians time to escape. And you'll be on foot since all the bikes are with Weaver," Tom says.

"I know, but if they know Weaver's coming, then the mission has already failed," I say.

He looks at me long and hard, like he was trying to decide if I could do it. "No, we need you here and it's too dangerous."

"Tom, they need to be warned. They could be walking into a trap," I protest.

"I know that, but like Jimmy said, our best fighters are there. They can protect themselves," Tom says, but I can tell it's halfhearted.

"Tom, I think that you could find that I can take care of myself as well," I say.

He's silent for a second and he scratches his chin. I can tell he's thinking hard about something.

"I remember when we were in the hospital, rescuing Ben, that something… something happened that I couldn't explain," Tom starts and I knew that he didn't just write it off. He's too smart to think it was just his mind playing tricks on his.

"I fired an arrow at the skitter and it was about to hit Hal accidently when it just stopped, in mid air. I couldn't explain it, but then I saw you. You didn't look surprised at all and I know that you saw it," Tom says and I can feel the unasked question in the air. I think for a minute about how to respond.

"I think that we both know that something did happen that night. And I also think that we both know that I did it," I say slowly.

"So it was you? You stopped the arrow?" he asks, just wanting to be sure.

"Yes, Tom. I did that," I say, bowing my head.

He shakes his head and thinks again.

"Your mission is approved. You leave immediately after I show you the route that they are taking," Tom says. My eyebrows shoot up in surprise and I walk toward him to look at the maps. After fifteen minutes of me looking at the map (which I had to write the directions on a piece of paper because there was no way I could have remembered it) I set out; after saying goodbye to Jimmy of course.


	36. Chapter 36

I'm walking along a main highway, hidden by trees. I reach an exit and take out my directions. It says to take the fifth exit I come across. I mark my hand with the pen so I can remember that this is the first exit I have passed.

By the time I have come to the fifth exit I see a tree lying across the road. Now this isn't the route that Weaver took, but it's the fastest way to get to Weaver. Around this time they should be waiting for the other regiments to contact them and will wait until dark before they begin the attack.

I walk onto the road and climb over the tree. It should be a little safer for me to walk on the open road now that I'm off the main highway. For the next hour I walk through the suburbs of the outskirts of the city. I look at the directions, but fold them up when I get to a more rural part of the city since it will be more dangerous. I take my gun in one hand (so I have one free to use my ability) and walk carefully under the underpass. Skitters like to sleep under these things, but luckily there are none here. It's starting to get dark and I know I have to hurry if I want to get to them in time. I speed up my walk and turn left at the next street. I follow this road for half a mile at a jog. I'm a little out of breath when I hear the purr of an engine, but I can't see a bike yet. It's only one engine; it could be anyone. I run to the side of the road and hide behind the nearest tree as the engine gets louder. I peek out as the bike rides past, but it's not a random stranger, it's Hal. I walk out from my hiding spot and shout to him to stop, but he doesn't hear me. Instead of chasing after him I do something easier. I flick my hands and his bike freezes. He lurches forward and then sits there for a second before I call out to him. He hears me loud and clear now that the engine isn't covering up my voice. He gets off the bike and takes the key from the ignition, turning the bike off and I unfreeze it. It lurches forward a few feet and then stops. I run to him and he meets me halfway.

"Laura, what are you doing here?"

"Something's happened. Rick told the skitters everything. Tom and I thought the mission might be compromised. I volunteered to warn you guys that you could be walking straight into a trap."

"But it's too late, they just left."

"Well then maybe there's still time, that is if I can borrow your bike," I say hopeful as I move to the bike.

"It takes fifteen minutes to get the spot I saw them last and they're moving," Hal informs me.

"Well then I guess I should hurry!" I shout over my shoulder to him.

"Look even if we could warn Weaver in time, they've split into four groups, so they could each take down a leg; the other masses never showed up, but they are still going to try to complete the mission," Hal informs me.

"We have to try," I say turning to face him. He looks at me and opens his mouth to speak when a metallic groan is heard. I turn to see just barely the light from a Mech in the twilight.

"Shit," I murmur.

We instantly run for cover and literally have to jump over the bushes to get hidden in time. We hear the Mech get closer when Hal is yanked backwards. He flies backward and into a tree. Then I'm grabbed by my neck by a skitter and I can feel the blood running down my neck and chest. Then I'm suddenly dropped and I struggle to regain my breath. When I hear the Mech about to fire I react and freeze everything. I blink and put my hand to my throat, trying to stop the blood. I unfreeze Hal and I call out to him. He takes on look at me and is instantly to my side. He takes off his jacket and wraps it around my neck.

"Hal?" I say painfully.

"Don't talk," he orders.

"Hal, if… if I pass out… everything will unfreeze," I warn him. He immediately understands. If I pass out from loss of blood, the skitter and Mech will unfreeze and we will probably be killed. And at the rate I'm losing blood, it probably won't be long.

Hal picks me up bridal style and runs me to the bike. Somehow he situates me in front of him and he starts the bike. We start moving and I can feel myself starting to pass out. He shakes my arm, which shakes my head since it's resting against his arm.

"Come one Laura, don't pass out on me," Hal says.

Too late.


	37. Chapter 37

"She should be fine," Anne says.

"Should be?" Jimmy asks worried.

"Well as long as she doesn't get an infection," Anne answers.

"Ok, so why hasn't she woken up yet?"

"She lost a lot of blood. Her body has to recover. I would give her a transfusion, but I don't have the proper tools."

"Can I sit with her?" Jimmy asks.

"Yeah sure," Anne says. I hear the footsteps and the scrap of a chair. I feel a hand put over mine.

"She'll be Ok," I can just barely hear Anne say.

"I know but still," Hal says.

After a moment Anne speaks again. "She will be fine. You should be with Matt and Ben. Hopefully your dad and Weaver will be back soon."

"Ok get me if she wakes up," Hal says and a few seconds later I hear a door close.

I'm just finished tying my shoes when Hal walks in.

"You shouldn't be getting out of bed", he says.

"Don't worry, Anne said I could," I say and when I look up at him, his face is full of grief and worry.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

He gives a little laugh. "How can you tell?"

"Hal?" I say trying to get back to the topic.

"It's my Dad. Weaver just returned, but my Dad he wasn't with him. Weaver said they took him," he tells me and I actually think he may start crying. I walk up to him and give him a tight hug, but I don't say anything.

When I pull away, he says "I still have to tell Matt and Ben."

He sits on the cot and I sit next to him.

"You won't be alone. I'll be there, so will Anne, Weaver, and the entire Second Mass. You and Matt and Ben will not be alone," I say and he looks at me.

"You'll be there… when you passed out in my arms on the bike, I thought… I thought you might have been…," he trails off, not even able to say the words.

"It scared the hell out of me, and I realized that if you… died, I don't know what I would do with myself. For that split second before I realized you were still breathing, I was completely and utterly terrified that you had left me," he admits. My eyes widen at how he phrases the last part.

"And I realized that I didn't want to live without you," he says, finally looking at me. He places his barely shaking hand over mine and entwines his fingers in mine. I'm speechless and I can tell he's starting to think I don't feel the same way. So I lean toward him and touch my lips to his, just barely. I pull a few inches away to look into his eyes and smile. He moves his hand that isn't holding one of mine onto my arm and slowly trails upward. He moves his hand over my over my shoulder and gently over my neck to my cheek where he moves it into my hair. I take my hand and hold it there, pressing my cheek into it. He moves toward me and kisses me again, but this time with more passion. I move my hand to his hair and am about to deepen the kiss more when I hear gunfire and pull away.

We immediately jump up and race outside. Hal still has his weapon, but I don't have any. But then again I don't really need one.

"Follow me," Hal says and I run after him. We arrive at another smaller building. I realize that we were in a school; a boarding school with many small buildings. We weave through all the fighters until we get inside the building. Weaver's just coming out as we go in.

"Laura, nice to see you on your feet," he says and tosses me a loaded gun.

"Let's go figure out what's going on," Weaver says and he brushes past us. I look at Hal and give him a smile. He just told me how he felt when he thought I was dead and now I'm being put into danger again. He must be feeling something about that. We follow Weaver toward the gunfire and when we get there we see two fighters firing at a skitter and four at a Mech. They must've been another patrol. We race down a grassy hill and I kneel behind a car for cover. Hal is right beside me and we start to fire at the Mech while Weaver goes for the skitter. After half my Mech ammo is gone I see something out of the corner of my eye.

I tap Hal's shoulder. "Hal."

"What?" he says looking at me in concern and I point. He looks over and I see a flash of the green skin that belongs to a skitter and hear the cries of a child over the firing of guns. I look at Hal and he gives me a similar look of understanding.

"Let's go," he says. I look to see the Mech occupied so I run out from behind the car and bolt toward the woods. Hal's right behind me and as we near the skitter I see we have a problem. The skitter is dragging a boy away. Not only is the boy shielding the skitter, but it's the identity of the boy that makes my heart drop as well. Because the boy the skitter has I know.

Matt.


End file.
